Cincinnati Reds’ Christian Encarnacion-Strand, right, hits a two-run home run in front of San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey during the eighth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wed Aug 30, 2023 (AP News photo)

Wednesday, August 30th, 2023

By Troy Ewers

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – In a day game coming off of Alex Cobb’s almost no-hitter, the San Francisco Giants faced the Cincinnati Reds to complete their series and the Giants are wrapping up their six game homestand. Logan Webb takes the mound for San Francisco and Hunter Greene for the Reds. This game for the Giants was to hold a spot for the NL wild card, especially after the D-Backs loss the night before. 

 A pitcher’s duel between Webb and Greene for five innings as we saw a scoreless game with seven hits total, but in the top of the sixth, the drought ended as Spencer Steer and Eddy De La Cruz got on base from singles.

Smart baserunning play got the first run as De La Cruz attempted to steal second and Patrick Bailey tried to throw him out, but was unsuccessful and as the ball left Bailey’s hand, Steer was successfully home, 1-0 Reds.

The very next run came from an RBI single by Christian Encarnacion-Strand which scored De La Cruz, 2-0 Reds with one out. Webb escaped the inning with a beautiful double play where he stopped the ball on a dime, threw to second, and then a play at first, but the damage was done and in the bottom of the sixth for the first time in this game, the Giants played from behind.

They started this at bat with Casey Schmitt hitting a lead-off double and carried on with a Thairo Estrada single. This rally caused Cincinnati to make a pitching change and bring in Ian Gibaut, but the rally continued as a wild pitch, moved the lead-off Schmitt who was on third score at home and Estrada to second, 2-1 Reds. Gibaut was able to get out the inning, but the energy in the park was still high as we entered the seventh. 

The Giants decided to sit Webb down after six innings, seven hits, six strikeouts, and two runs, so they brought Ryan Walker in the seventh and he got back to back strikeouts, but after a single they switched him with Taylor Rogers to provide relief.

After the seventh inning stretch, the Reds brought in Fernando Cruz and he didn’t crack under the pressure, upholding that lead for Cincinnati. The eighth came and the Giants swapped one Rogers brother in for another as Tyler Rogers took the hill.

It looked Tyler Rogers was holding his own, but Encarnacion-Strand got his second RBI of the game with a two run shot to center field that scored De La Cruz making this game 4-1 Reds. 

The ninth inning started off with Luke Jackson shutting down the Reds to hopefully spark some type of comeback for San Francisco. Patrick Bailey was the leadoff guy and was walked, so the hopes for a comeback rally began to fill Oracle Park.

Yastrzemski popped out for the first out, but the energy was still hovering around the park. J.D. Davis grounded into a fielder’s choice for the second out and that’s when fans began to try to beat the traffic. Wade Meckler being the last hope to keep this comeback alive and on a full count he was struck out and that’s the ball game, 4-1 Cincinnati. 

Even though the Giants didn’t sweep the series, they walked away with a series win and their homestand ended here. San Francisco has no time to think about this loss, because they find themselves headed to San Diego the very next day to face the Padres.

The Giants haven’t announced who will start in this four game series at Petco Park in San Diego, but they know they will face Pedro Avila (0-1, 2.63) of the San Diego Padres and hopefully the Giants can go in to the month of September with momentum to secure their spot in the playoffs.

Troy Ewers is a beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com