Cueto exits, ’pen picks up slack
Right-hander leaves in the sixth inning, diagnosed initially with tight lat muscle
>> After dominating the Cincinnati Reds into the sixth inning of Wednesday’s game and blowing a 93-mile per hour fastball past Nick Castellanos for his fourth strikeout, Giants starter Johnny Cueto made an unexpected call for help.
Manager Gabe Kapler, trainer Dave Groeschner and catcher Curt Casali immediately walked to the mound at Oracle Park to check on Cueto, who left the field
in frustration alongside Groeschner in the midst of another brilliant outing.
The Giants’ bullpen picked up where Cueto left off, tossing 3 1/3 innings of scoreless ball to cap off a 3-0 win and secure a series victory over the Reds, but the triumph was clouded by concerns about Cueto, who was initially diagnosed with a tight lat muscle.
After being shut out in Monday’s series opener, the Giants (84) muscled their way back from a four-run first-inning deficit to win 7-6 on Tuesday before returning the favor and blanking the Reds in Wednesday’s series finale. The Giants wrapped up their first homestand of the season with a 5-1 record and will now head to the East Coast for the first time since 2019 for series’ against the Marlins and Phillies.
Cueto threw 8 2/3 innings of one-run ball against the Rockies in Friday’s home opener in his best start since the 2016 sea
son and was building off the effort with another outstanding showing against the Reds before he needed to exit Wednesday’s game. Left-hander Caleb Baragar took over and needed two pitches to retire Reds first baseman Joey Votto before Logan Webb, Tyler Rogers and Jake McGee finished off the game.
Rogers and McGee made their major-league leading eight appearances out of the bullpen Wednesday while Webb came in from the bullpen for the first time following a pregame announcement that he was losing his spot in the rotation to Alex Wood, who is set to be activated from the injured list on Sunday in Miami.
Before exiting after 5 2/3 innings, Cueto had outdueled Reds right-hander Tyler Mahle, who was efficient in the early innings of Wednesday’s game before the Giants offense ran up his pitch count in the fourth and fifth.
Mahle was perfect through his first three innings against the Giants. That trend continued in the fifth as Donovan Solano led off the inning with an eightpitch at-bat that resulted in a bloop single in front of right fielder Nick Castellanos that ended Mahle’s nohit bid. Two batters later, Austin Slater broke a scoreless tie with a double into the right field gap on an 0-2 mistake that Mahle left up over the heart of the plate.
The Giants added a second run when Slater raced home from third on an infield chopper hit by Curt Casali.