Cueto Scratched as San Francisco Giants Drop Series to Tigers

The San Francisco Giants had to scratch Johnny Cueto from Thursday’s game and ended up losing the series finale against the Detroit Tigers 6-2.

Cueto was scratched just before the game on Thursday afternoon with an ear infection.

Chris Stratton made his first major league start in Cueto’s absence.

Things got off to a shaky start as he gave up a run in the first inning on a 2-out hit from Miguel Cabrera. But it was even worse in the second as Stratton allowed a leadoff triple, which was followed by an RBI-single. And then two batters later he gave up a 2-run home run to put the San Francisco Giants in a 4-0 hole.

He gave up another run in the third inning to make it a 5-0 deficit. However, he really settled down after that and pitched 3.2 scoreless innings the rest of the way.

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Stratton finished the day giving up 5 runs on 6 hits and 5 walks in 6.2 innings with 2 strikeouts. Considering the fact he probably had no idea he would be starting for the San Francisco Giants today, that’s not a terrible line.

The offense did Stratton no favors as they were shut down all day by Anibal Sanchez.

The San Francisco Giants finally got to Sanchez in the sixth with a single and a triple to begin the inning. They scratched across another run against Sanchez in the sixth. Sanchez finished the game giving up 2 runs on 5 hits and no walks with 8 strikeouts.

The Tigers scratched across another run in the eighth off of Kyle Crick to make the final score 6-2.

Takeaways:

• Cueto sick: It looks like Cueto is dealing with flu-like symptoms, but it’s unclear at this point if he’ll be able to make another start for the San Francisco Giants before the All-Star Break.
• Stratton Ends Nicely: It looked like it was going to be a terrible first major league start for Stratton, but he settled down and finished strong. I think he’s more of a long reliever in the future, but there were some good signs for Stratton in this game. Especially considering he barely had any notice that he was starting today.
• Offense Goes Silent: The Tigers pitching staff allowed just six base runners all game. The San Francisco Giants went 3-up-3-down six times in this game.

Next: Sam Dyson Finding his Groove with the San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants will finish the first half of the season at home against the Miami Marlins. The three game series starts at 7:15 PCT Friday.