by
Greek Giant
Alex Cobb came with one out of a no-hitter and the Giants beat the Cincy Reds 6-1 last night at Willie Mays Field. The Giants had seven hits of their own but scored their first five runs courtesy of verrrry sloppy play by the Reds. But back to Alex! Cobb was sensational with his cutter and his very movement-oriented fastball. He was getting ahead of hitters all night and ended up throwing 131 pitches in his complete game victory. I am going to take a wild guess and say that number of pitches was a career-high for the tough as nails right-hander.
The one hit that spoiled the no-no was a two-out RBI double by Spencer Steer just outside the reach of Luis Matos’s glove in right field. I could not tell for sure but it seemed to me in the replay that Matos could have taken a better route to that ball. I will also go out on a limb and say Gregor Blanco makes that catch. At any rate, it was a great game for the Giants in a very intense series with playoff implications.
The Giants scored their runs courtesy of a balk in the bottom of the second inning. In the bottom of the third, a three-run inning for San Francisco, the Giants scored on a wild pitch. Then a two-out error by the Reds third baseman, Marte, started a new rally. That runner was Haniger. The next batter was Patrick Bailey who homered to center field on a ball that was actually almost caught by the Reds center fielder Friedl. He had half the ball in his webbing over the wall but could not corral it. It was about to be one of the greatest catches of all time. Instead the Giants got two more runs and the victory was more and more probable thanks to Alex Cobb’s dominance on the mound.
Bailey would end up with two hits in the game. The third-straight win was the product of dominant starting pitching, like last night’s 4-1 win, courtesy of another spectacular start by Kyle Harrison. That’s more like it.
The Giants have a record of 69-63 and moved ahead by one half game, of Arizona in the third Wild Card spot.
Today’s Game
It’s Greene vs Webb in today’s series finale at 1:45 PM.