SF Giants’ Johnny Cueto’s no-hit bid broken up by stunning misplay from Hunter Pence
The horrendous miscue contributed to the worst inning of the year for the Giants.
Who knows what could have been if Hunter Pence saw a routine flyball hit out toward left field at Dodger Stadium in the bottom of the sixth on Saturday night.
Giants starter Johnny Cueto might forever wonder, “What if?”
After tossing five no-hit innings to open Saturday’s game against the Dodgers, Cueto came out for the bottom of the sixth and induced an easy flyball out to left field off the bat of Dodgers second baseman Kiké Hernández.
As the ball flew toward the outfield, Pence took a few steps in from his position before raising his arms. He had lost the flyball in the Dodger Stadium lights and in turn, Cueto lost his chance at history.
“Johnny had the magic going, he had the rhythm going, he had everything working,” Pence said. “It was one of those special nights that doesn’t always come around. You could just feel it. To spoil that, it feels awful. It would be a lot easier if it affected my stats.”
The Giants entered Saturday’s game with a major league-leading 18 errors, but Pence’s misplay will go down on the stat sheet for Hernández as a triple because flyballs lost in the elements are not ruled as errors.
Tough way to lose a no-hitter pic.twitter.com/saPkkCoOBD
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 9, 2020
On what started out as a night to remember for Cueto and the Giants, the bottom of the sixth inning turned utterly forgettable.
The Dodgers scored their first run on a RBI groundout, but added three more on a long home run to left field from third baseman Justin Turner, who has dominated Cueto for much of his career.
It was surprising Cueto was still in the game at all by the time Turner came to the plate as he had walked the previous two hitters and also received a visit from Giants senior director of athletic trainer Dave Groeschner, who appeared to be checking on a potential leg injury for the veteran right-hander.
Cueto convinced Groeschner and Giants manager Gabe Kapler he was healthy enough to continue pitching, but after throwing more than 25 pitches in the bottom of the sixth, he was clearly running out of gas.
Turner made Cueto and Kapler pay with a no-doubter out to left field and in an instant, a 5-0 lead was suddenly a narrow 5-4 advantage.
On the "triple" that ended Johnny Cueto's no-hitter when Hunter Pence lost it in the twilight…
Kiké had an .060 xBA.
The ball was in the air for 6.7 seconds.
Pence had a 99% catch probability. pic.twitter.com/yPL1hHIJII
— David Adler (@_dadler) August 9, 2020