Photo courtesy of San Francisco Giants. Marco Luciano poses with his commemorative first hit ball.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN FRANCISCO- The Giants opened their weekend series against the Red Sox in disappointing fashion losing 3-2.

On the mound for the Giants was their ace Logan Webb who came into this game with a 8-8 record and 3.48 ERA. While for Boston right-hander Kutter Crawford got the start with a 4-5 record and a 4.04 ERA.

Wilmer Flores continued his torrid pace as he got the first hit of this game with a single to left field in the first inning but with two outs Mike Yastrzemski was unable to bring him home.

In the top of the second the offense got going for the Red Sox as after Rafael Devers went down Adam Duvall got a double. It was not the most conventional double as on accident the ball dude along the left field wall accidentally caught the ball despite it being fair.

So Duvall was given an automatic double and then Triston Casas got a ground rule double as he smacked one to triples alley that went over the wall. After the run given up Webb was able to get back in the zone and struck out the next two batters keeping the damage at 1-0.

In the top of the third Jarren Duran singled then tried to steal but of course Patrick Bailey caught him with a great throw to second getting his 17th thrown out runner of the season. That thrown out runner brings his stats up to 17-46 caught base stealers.

After a quiet fourth inning were neither team registered a hit Triston Casas lead off the 5th inning with a bang as he launched a solo shot over the left field wall making it 2-0. The home run was Casas’s 16th of the season with an exit velocity of 109.5 mph and distance of 435 ft.

The offense for San Francisco was quite slow to get going after the first hit by Flores but in the sixth it found its footing. The inning was kicked off by Marco Luciano getting his first career hit and then advancing to second on a wild pitch.

After Joc Pederson flew out Michael Conforto brought the rookie home with a single to center field making it 2-1. Flores almost gave the Giants the lead right after but did not quite get enough on it as it was caught on the warning track.

Flores would end up being the last hitter Crawford faced as the Red Sox went to the bullpen bringing in Brennan Bernardino. Crawford finished the night with 5.2 innings pitched, three hits given up, one earned run and seven K’s.

Bernardino was able to close out the sixth inning by striking out Austin Slater who had come in to pinch hit for Yastrzemski.

In the seventh the Red Sox went to the bullpen once again this time calling on Josh Wincowski. Much like the sixth the Giants lead things off strong as J.D. Davis and Bailey got back-to-back base knocks. Blake Sabol then came up to bat pinch-hitting for Luis Matos.

Sabol hit a chopper that looked like it would squeak out of the infield but Justin Turner made a great play keeping the ball in the infield and getting the out at second. With Brett Wisely striking out it all came down to Luciano but he was called out looking stranding Davis and Bailey.

The eighth saw the Giants go to the bullpen as well after a hit by Connor Wong and sacrifice bunt by Yu Chang. To relieve Webb they called on Taylor Rogers as Logan finished the night with 7.1 innings pitched, six hits, two earned runs, and four K’s.

Rogers did not start his outing off on a great note as he gave up a hit to Rob Refsnyder who came in to pinch hit for Duran. The hit was enough to knock in a run making it 3-1. The Giants were then able to turn a 5-6-3 ending the inning and bringing up the top of the order.

Similar to the fifth this time the Giants started things off with a bang as Pederson smoked one to center field making it 3-2. The exit velocity on the home run was 109.5 mph and it traveled 412 feet. The rest of the orange-and-blacks lineup went down in order meaning the ninth had to be a big inning for San Francisco.

The top of the ninth saw Rogers do what he needed to do as he gave up no runs meaning the Giants only needed one run to tie it.

To close out the game the Red Sox called on right hander Kenley Jansen someone Giants fans are all too familiar with.

Jansen was able to make quick work of the Giants hitters sitting them down in order and securing a Red Sox win.

“I just like to attack the zone if I see something that is near the strike zone I’m going to swing,” Marco Luciano said after the game.

The second game of this series is tomorrow at 4:15 were the Giants will look to bounce back.