Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Johnny Cueto had such a fantastic start to the 2018 season. The St. Louis Cardinals, however, made it look like it never happened.

Thursday marked starter Cueto’s return to the rotation after missing the previous two months with inflammation in his pitching elbow, and the Cardinals did not welcome him very kindly in a 11-2 drubbing of the Giants at AT&T Park on Thursday night.

It was clear from the outset that Cueto did not have his usual command, and the Cardinals capitalized. They loaded the bases off him in the first inning before they recorded an out. An RBI groundout later, Jedd Gyorko skied one the opposite way into the arcade in right field to give the Cardinals a 4-0 lead.

Although he got out of that inning with no further damage, the Cardinals weren’t done with him. That’s because in the second, Matt Carpenter drilled one into the stands in right-center – the deepest part of the ballpark – to extend the St. Louis lead to five.

“He got himself in trouble there, but after that, it just got better, and that’s encouraging,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “His stuff picked up, his command picked up.

“It got to a point where I thought he was comfortable out there, but we’ll see how he feels tomorrow,” he added. “You have to be encouraged that he got better as he went. He should feel pretty good about this start. Sure, you’d like to take that first inning away, but that counts, too.”

Cueto lasted three more innings and ended up surrendering 10 hits and those five runs. It was a far cry from his performance earlier in the season, as he was 3-0 with an 0.84 ERA – the fourth-lowest ERA through five starts in Giants history – prior to going on the disabled list.

Ty Blach didn’t fare any better. He relieved Cueto in the sixth and was promptly hit with a four-spot. He recorded only two outs before being yanked in favor of Derek Holland, who was moved to the bullpen to make room for Cueto in the rotation.

Meanwhile, the Giants could not get anything going against Cardinals starter Luke Weaver at all. In fact, the Giants didn’t get a single baserunner on. The closest they came was with two out in the fifth inning, when Pablo Sandoval was initially issued a walk before the umpiring crew realized that it was still a full count.

The momentum was short-lived, as three pitches later, Weaver got Sandoval to chase a slider out of the strike zone to end the inning.

Gorkys Hernandez, who is making a serious case for being a National League All-Star, broke up Weaver’s no-hit bid in the sixth, when he legged out an infield single. Two batters later, Weaver made a rare mistake out over the plate, and Alen Hanson sent into the right-field arcade to give the Giants a little bit of life, 9-2.

Those would be the only two hits that the Giants would get from Weaver, who went eight innings and improved his record to 5-7 with a 4.92 ERA, in the best performance of his young career.

The Giants look to bounce back against the Cardinals on Friday night at 7:15 pm PDT.