Giants Shut Out By Reds, Again

The Cincinnati Reds bats were alive last night, and unfortunately the San Francisco Giants weren’t. Bronson Arroyo and the Reds shutout the Giants 11-0.

We watched this game at AT&T Park and I think it was more painful to watch live.

July 22, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; Cincinnati Reds center fielder Shin-Soo Choo (17) rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run off of San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum (55) during the second inning at AT

Tim Lincecum couldn’t get out of the fourth inning and gave up at least one run in each of the first three innings. After a walk to Jay Bruce in the first inning, Todd Fraizer hit a double to center field that scored three Reds. Cue the talk of his 148 pitches in the no-hitter.

The next inning started off even worse as the lead off hitter Devin Mesoraco hit a solo home run to left field and two batters later Shin-Soo Choo hit another solo shot to left field again. The third inning was Lincecums best inning only giving up a deep solo home run to right center field to Jay Bruce. Fourth inning looked promising as Kincecu got two quick outs but was yanked after giving up consecutive singles to Robinson and Joey Votto.

George Kontos comes in to clean up the mess and he did just that as he allowed the two vase runners to score on a double to right field. In his defense Brandon Belt misplayed a ball and the back runner scored. Kontos gave up another run in the fifth and the rest of the game is a bit of a haze.

Bruce Bochy made things real interesting when he took Posey out of the game in the fifth inning. He was probably thinking ahead to today’s double header, and Dusty Baker even pulled Joey Votto out and Brandon Phillips a little early as well. But, had the Giants been a bit closer, Bochy would have surely left Posey and his .325 batting average in the lineup.

I will focus on a few positives. Kontos ate up some innings in the middle of the game. Yes, he allowed even more runs, but he did his job, which was to eat up innings. Jake Dunning was the first Giants pitcher to keep the Reds scoreless in the game. That didn’t come until the 8th inning, however. Maybe he should have started the game.

Jeff Francouer ended the game with a likely home run ball that was taken away by Derrick Robinson. It came with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, and of course wouldn’t have meant a whole lot. But for those fans, like us, who stayed for the entire game, it would have been nice to see the Giants put at least 1 run on the board and break up Arroyo’s shutout. From a baseball perspective, that catch was actually pretty beautiful. See below.

Eric Surkamp and Barry Zito fill in today as the Giants/Reds doubleheader begins at 4:05pm

Robinson’s Spectacular Catch (MLB didn’t have the embed option on this, sorry)