Pomeranz pounded by Reds offense
Sandoval pitches in with inning of relief
CINCINNATI >> The Giants are holding a “Let Pablo Pitch” bobblehead day this Saturday at Oracle Park.
On Monday, the Giants didn’t just let Pablo Sandoval pitch, they needed the righthander to give them an inning at the end of an exhausting series against the Cincinnati Reds.
With the Giants trailing 124, Sandoval entered to face the Reds in the bottom of the eighth for his second career pitching appearance. Sandoval hit the first batter he faced, Jose Peraza, but induced a flyout and a 6-4-3 double play ground out to end the inning and keep his career ERA at
0.00.
The Giants lost 12-4, but Sandoval did shine in the defeat as he pitched a scoreless inning, topped out at 84.3 miles per hour with his fastball, hit a three-run home run and stole a base for the first time since 2012.
“Whatever I can do to help this team, I’m going to do it, man,” Sandoval said. “I’m going to take that punch and sacrifice everything to help the bullpen.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Sandoval is the second player since 1900 to throw a scoreless outing, hit a home run and steal a base in the same game since Christy Mathewson of the Giants did it in a nine-inning shutout of the Reds on May 23, 1905.
The Giants called on Sandoval after starter Drew Pomeranz lasted just 1 2/3 innings in the shortest outing by a Giants starter this season. Pomeranz missed with too many pitches over the plate, but later in the game, Giants relievers were off the mark outside the strike zone.
In the bottom of the sixth, switch-pitcher Pat Venditte hit three batters while Sam Dyson plunked another as the Giants became the first team to hit four batters in an inning since the Pittsburgh Pirates hit four Boston Braves on August 19, 1893.
When Sandoval hit Peraza in the eighth, the Giants set a new franchise-record with five hit by pitches in the same game.
“It’s not easy, pitching is not easy,” Sandoval said. “I make it easy because I have fun with it and I don’t care about the situation.”
ARE GIANTS CLOSE TO USING “OPENERS?” >> For the first time ever, three Giants starters allowed at least seven earned runs in the same series as Pomeranz became the third pitcher in four days to give up seven against the Reds. Jeff Samardzija allowed three homers and four runs
in the first inning on Sunday, but was the only Giants starter to limit the Reds to fewer than five hits as Tyler Beede and Dereck Rodríguez also struggled in their outings as Great American Ball Park.
“I’m trying to think if I’ve ever seen four games where starters have given up this many runs or home runs,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “It caught up with the (bullpen), those guy were getting over-used a little bit. We were just totally off our game as far as the starters.”
Giants starters combined to allow 27 runs over four games in Cincinnati, the most allowed by the team’s starters in a series since they allowed 28 in a four-game series in Milwaukee from September 21-24, 2006.
Including Derek Holland, who is set to return from the injured list and start Wednesday in Denver, three members of the Giants’ original starting rotation (Rodríguez, Pomeranz) now have earned run averages above 5.00.
With limited options to aid the rotation available in Triple-A, the Giants may have little choice but to begin experimenting with the major league staff.
President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said this winter the Giants would consider using “openers” to
start games if doing so increased the team’s chances of winning, and with one of the better bullpens in baseball, it’s possible the Giants will attempt to employ the alternative pitching strategy made popular by the Tampa Bay Rays sooner rather than later.
San Francisco will likely evaluate Beede in a starting role again this year while prospect Shaun Anderson is a good bet to make his major league debut this summer, but fans should expect the Giants to begin discussing different ways to maximize the effectiveness of their pitchers.
BEES CAN’T DELAY THE INEVITABLE >> The sun was shining and the skies were clear, yet Monday’s series finale was still delayed by 18 minutes.
The reason? A swarm of bees hovered around home plate and prevented the Reds from taking the field in the top of the first inning. After Reds utility player Derek Dietrich put on a beekeeper suit and attempted to chase them away (seriously), the bees ultimately left the area and allowed the Giants to come to the plate.
However, the delay appeared to trouble Pomeranz, who had already finished his pregame work and returned to the visiting dugout before the game was
paused.
Midway through the delay, Pomeranz left the dugout to play catch with Sandoval, but staying loose did little to help the left-hander in the bottom half of the inning. Two of the first three Reds hitters --Nick Senzel and Eugenio Suárez-- took Pomeranz deep while two more runs came home on RBI hits from Jose Iglesias and Curt Casali.
“Nothing I threw went were it was supposed to today,” Pomeranz said. “They kept swinging and kept hitting it. That’s pretty much what happened.”
After falling behind 5-0 in the first on Monday, the Giants have now been outscored 33-2 in the first inning of games this year. They sport a -31 first inning run differential through 35 games and looked unfocused in the opening frame all weekend against the Reds.
In four games, Cincinnati hit six homers and outscored the Giants 13-0 in the first inning as they brought home at least one first-inning run in every game of the series.
“We’ve seen it all week, you know how the park is and how it plays,” Pomeranz said. “I think it’s just part of the game not letting them do that and they seemed to use their field well today.”
REDS HONOR BOCHY >> The Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays all had their chance to honor Bochy in his final visit to those cities. All of those teams missed the opportunity.
The Cincinnati Reds, led by former Giants farm director David Bell, did not.
The Reds became the first team to acknowledge Bochy during his farewell tour as Cincinnati held a small pregame ceremony in front of the home dugout on Monday. The Reds flashed a graphic listing Bochy’s career achievements on both the left and right field scoreboards and Bell presented Bochy with two wrapped presents.
Bochy didn’t open the gifts from Bell on the field, but he received a one-of-akind set of wine glasses, a wine carafe and a custommade bourbon ice chest produced locally by Allen Company.
“What David did and of course the ownership and front office, I thank them,” Bochy said. “That was pretty special. When I was a young kid, my dad was a Reds fan which made me a Reds fan so that was pretty cool for me.”
After receiving the gifts, Bochy tipped his cap to the fans in attendance, including many sitting behind the Giants dugout who wore orange and black to the ballpark on Monday.
Several great players in recent history including David Ortiz and Mariano Rivera were acknowledged in road series by their opponents and there’s no reason Bochy, a lock for the Hall of Fame, shouldn’t receive the same treatment.
Bochy grew up attending games at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., but the Nationals were one of three teams thus far who did not give the Giants manager any additional recognition for his contributions to the game.