NOTHING GAINED
Gausman flirts with no-hitter, but falters in seventh in loss to Cardinals
SAN FRANCISCO >> First Kevin Gausman lost his no-hitter, then the shutout and eventually the game.
Matt Carpenter had the big blow with a two-run triple in the seventh inning against Gausman on Monday as the Giants fell 5-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals
at Oracle Park.
Gausman (8-3) threw 6 1/3 no-hit innings before the Cardinals broke through, and St. Louis got an equally stout performance from starter and winning pitcher Kwang Hyun Kim (3-5).
Kim, a left-hander, had little trouble navigating the Giants’ right-handed hitting lineup, giving up just three hits and no runs in seven innings. He threw 89 pitches and struck out two.
The Giants didn’t have a runner pass first base until Alex Dickerson hit a pinch-solo home run (his eighth) against reliever
Giovanny Gallegos with two out in the eighth inning.
All-Star closer Alex Reyes pitched the ninth in a non-save situation for St. Louis, with the Giants making things interesting by getting a run-scoring single by Donovan Solano and an RBI groundout from Steven Duggar.
Reyes, however, struck out
LaMonte Wade Jr. to end the game.
Carpenter’s triple came with two outs in the seventh inning which began with a near-crowd of 32,644 warming to the idea that they may be witnessing the eighth nohitter of the major league season as well as the 18th in Giants history.
“As efficient as Gaus was and as good as his split was, I thought it was a possiblity,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.
After retiring Paul Goldschmidt on a grounder to short on the first pitch of the inning, All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado let the air out of the park with a clean single to left field.
Arenado’s hit came when he went down to hit Gausman’s splitter, and he earlier averted the strikeout by fouling off the same pitch.
“He’s obviously one of the best if not the best third baseman in baseball,” Gausman said. “That’s what good players do, they make an adjustment. I was amazed that he fouled off the previous pitch and it was a really good pitch he happeneed to go get.”
Gausman came back to strike out Yadier Molina, but Tommy Edman followed with an over-shift single to short, hitting a roller Brandon Crawford couldn’t have done anything with even had he fielded it cleanly.
Carpenter, hitting .177 coming in to the game, launched a drive Austin Slater couldn’t catch up with in left-center field. It bounced off the fence, with Arenado and Edman both racing around to score. Gausman struck out Harrison Bader to end the inning, his eighth of the game on his 99th pitch.
That would be it for Gausman, a newly anointed National League All-Star, with Zack Littell replacing him in the eighth inning for the Giants.
Gausman, who lost to the Dodgers 3-1 in his previous start, has back-to-back losses for the first time this season, although his effort against St. Louis was one of his best until the seventh.
In the eighth inning, St. Louis scored off a hard-luck Littell on a bloop RBI single by Arenado, with Goldschmidt also getting a bloop single in the inning. In the ninth, the Cardinals added two more runs against reliever Jimmy Sherfy on a run-scoring single from Edman and a sacrifice fly by Jose Rondon.
Dickerson’s pinch hit home run was his second of the season and fifth of his career.
The Giants fell to 53-31, with St. Louis, in fourth pnlace in the NL Central, improving to 42-44.
Although heartened by the ninth-inning rally, the Giants were unable to work Kim into a high pitch count as is their normal mode of attack against opposing starters.
“He was able to stay just off the corners of the plate and down below the zone and we were putting balls in play we normally foul off or sometimes we take to get a finesse pitcher out of the game,” Kapler said.
The teams play the second game of the series Tuesday night at Oracle, with Johnny Cueto (6-4) opposing Adam Wainwright (6-5).
Notes
• Right fielder Jaylin Davis strained his left hamstring running to first base and was removed from the game.
• Kapler said catcher Buster Posey was able to hit in an emergency and wouldn’t rule out a return tonight with a thumb contusion.
“He’s feeling a little better and we’ll see how he’s doing tomorrow,” Kapler said.
• Former Antioch High and Alabama running back Najee Harris threw out the first pitch. Harris was a firstround draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers.