SF Giants stretch win streak to six after resuming suspended game vs. Reds

The Giants’ suspended game against the Reds resumed Tuesday afternoon and so did their win streak, as Joc Pederson and Michael Conforto drove in 10th-inning runs to help the Giants to a 4-2 victory.

Winning their sixth game in a row, the Giants moved a season-high 12 games over .500.

Pederson led off the 10th inning with a double off the left-field wall that scored automatic runner Brett Wisely. Then, two batters later, Conforto brought Pederson home with a hard-hit groundball to second base. Cincinnati’s infield was playing in and Jonathan India threw home to try to catch Pederson but was too late.

Camilo Doval retired the side in the bottom half, striking out India and Joey Votto to earn the save.

Just one inning earlier, Tyler Rogers picked rookie star Elly De La Cruz off second base, taking a bite out of the Reds’ bid for a ninth-inning walk-off. Rogers faked going into his pitching motion and instead continued to step backward, tossing to shortstop Casey Schmitt to begin a rundown.

Rogers picked up the win, moving to 3-4 on the season.

“This is something that we’ve worked so hard on, and we know that controlling the running game wins games,” manager Gabe Kapler told reporters after the game, shouting out Rogers and third-base coach Mark Hallberg, who called for the move. “Having an inside move that baserunners will actually buy is a huge emphasis for us.”

Tyler Rogers, Pickoff Mechanics pic.twitter.com/8ZDUsAQ9HM

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) July 18, 2023

Coming off the first complete-game shutout of his career, Logan Webb pitched well but was burned by the long ball in hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark. The major-league leader in innings pitched (133), Webb waited to make his first start of the second half until the opening game of their second series, sitting out their three-game sweep in Pittsburgh in an attempt to keep him fresh down the stretch.

Besides a pair of solo homers, Webb allowed only two other Reds to reach base as he completed seven innings while striking out seven.

Austin Slater got the Giants on the board, tying the score at 1 in the third inning, with one of their most impressive home runs of the season. He smoked a 1-0 cutter from Reds starter Brandon Williamson so hard — 109.6 mph — that it hit off the smokestacks behind the right-center field seats, an estimated 442 feet away. It was the second-longest home run by a Giants player this season outside of Mexico City.

Flores’ was somewhat less majestic, a mere 387 feet, but no less of a no-doubter, clearing the left-field wall by a dozen or so rows. He also added a pair of doubles in a 3-for-4 performance, the second of which put the go-ahead runs on second and third in the eighth inning. Since the start of June, Flores is batting .391 (27-for-69) with three home runs, a 1.079 OPS that leads the team in that span.

The two solo shots amounted to more home runs than the Giants had in 28 innings of baseball in their three-game sweep in Pittsburgh. While they have found a way to win, there’s no question that the power has dried up.

The Giants’ 46 home runs were the third-most in the majors at the end of April. In two and a half months since then, they had homered only 61 times since then before Monday, the fourth-fewest in the majors. And yet, get this: San Francisco’s record at the end of April was 11-16; since then, the Giants are 42-25, better than every team in the majors except Atlanta.

Still, they fare much better when they’re able to put the ball beyond the wall, a task made easier in the bandbox Cincinnati calls home. They improved to 39-23 when hitting at least one homer (21-10 with two or more), versus 14-18 when held inside the park.

Slater, whose .977 OPS against lefties this year is 15th-best in the National League (min. 50 PA), got another chance against Williamson in the fifth but grounded out to Elly De La Cruz at third with Brett Wisely on second base. After falling into a two-strike count, Wisely laid off two pitches outside the strike zone, then laced a double on the full-count pitch to turn the lineup over to Slater.

Webb surrendered a leadoff double to India in the bottom half of the fifth but stranded him on third by striking out Joey Votto and generating a couple of soft ground balls. He allowed only one other batter to reach base and lowered his ERA this season to 3.11, seventh in the NL.

India got the better of Webb in his final inning, when he took an 0-1 sinker deep to right field, tying the game at 2. The Reds’ other run came on a McLain home run with two outs in the first inning.

The Giants were positioned to retake the lead in the top of the eighth when the game entered a rain delay. Tied at 2, they had runners at second and third and one out after a pinch-hit walk from Joc Pederson and Wilmer Flores’ second double of the game. LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski both struck out swinging to end the threat, but Rogers, Peterson and Conforto picked them up in the end.

The teams will reconvene later Tuesday for the day’s scheduled game as Anthony DeSclafani (4-8, 4.44 ERA) is set to go against Luke Weaver (2-2, 7.00). DeSclafani was activated from the 15-day injured list after missing the last two weeks with ankle inflammation. Tristan Beck was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento in a corresponding move, while Bryce Johnson was named the 27th man on the roster for the evening game.