Cincinnati Reds starter Hunter Greene threw a gem against the San Francisco Giants and was one out away from a complete game at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Mon Apr 7, 2025 (AP News photo)

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Time: 2:09             Attendance: 30,328

Monday, April 7, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–Don’t look now, but your San Francisco Giants took the field this chilly Monday evening leading the National League western division. They’ve even been getting hits with runners in score position, if you’re willing to overlook that 11 inning marathon of frustration that was last Friday’s Alphonse and Gaston routine against the Mariners. 

But there weren’t all that many Giant baserunners to be stranded in Monday night’s 2-0 loss to  the Cincinnati Reds . The home team left a total of five on base for the game, three of them in the ninth, and the first of them got on with two outs. 

Logan Webb, Esef’s starting and winning pitcher in their Great American Ballpark season opener on March 27, shut out the Rhinelanders for seven innings by the shores of McCovey Cove, holding them to four hits without granting them a free pass but notching seven Ks. 66 of his pitches qualified as strikes. His performance lowered his ERA to 1.89.

Logan was followed by Camilo Doval, who promptly walked Spencer Steel and plunked Jacob Hurtubise, a last minute replacement for Jake Fraley. José Treviño laid down a sacrifice bunt,  and that was it for the Giants’ one time ballyhooed closer.

Erik Miller walked TJ Friedl to load the bases. Blake Dunn smacked a double into the right field corner, driving in Spencer and Hurtubise with what proved to be the only tallies of the game. Miller then wisely granted Elly De La Cruz an intentional walk and retired Gavin on a called third strike.  At this point, Lou Trivino replaced Miller and ended the inning by getting Christian Encarnacion-Strand to fly out to right.

San Francisco made a valiant attempt to bounce back in the home half of the ninth. LaMonte Wade, Jr., and Willy Adames went down quickly. But 이정후, known to Giant fans as Jung Hoo Lee, extended his base reaching stretch to niine games with a single to right center, which, along with  two brilliant catches, one in the first and another in the fifth, were bright spots in an otherwise disappointing night for the Gints. A walk to Matt Chapman put the potential tying run on a base, and drove the Redleg starter, Hunter Greene, from that mound. Tony Santillán retired Héctor Ramos on a line drive to left to end it all.

Greene got the well deserved win, bringing his record to 1-1,1.32. He toiled 8-2/3 frames and threw 104 pitches, 76 for strikes, allowing but four hits, one walk, and a wild pitch, while striking out seven opponents. One of those four hits was the 100th of Tyler Fitzgerald’s big league career.

Tuesday, the teams will pick up where they left off, in the second game of this three game series. Reds Southpaw Nick  Lodolow (1-1 ERA 1.42) will be on the bump for the Reds, and righty Landon Roupp (0-0,6.75) will toe the rubber for the Giants.