MLB.com
CINCINNATI -- For whatever reason, whether it's coincidence or something more tangible, the Giants simply don't play well against the Cincinnati Reds.
Sauntering into Great American Ball Park after subduing the formidable Philadelphia Phillies twice in a row, San Francisco has dropped the first two games of this series to the Reds, including Saturday night's error-plagued 7-2 decision.
The Giants have lost 15 of their last 25 games against Cincinnati since 2008. They also sealed their first series loss since the A's swept them June 17-19 in Oakland. Since then, the Giants had won eight series and split two.
When the Giants began their 19-game stretch against contending teams on July 22 against Milwaukee, some observers mentally crossed the Reds off that list. After all, the Reds owned a sub-.500 record, which they still do. And the defending National League Central champions are on the fringes of the division race, trailing Milwaukee by 6 1/2 games.
But Cincinnati has been one of the league's most successful teams against the Giants this year, winning four of six games from them. Good thing for the Giants that the Reds no longer reside in the NL West, as they did before the onset of the Wild Card era in 1994.
Madison Bumgarner conjured memories of his eight-run, one-third-inning debacle June 21 against Minnesota. This time, seven consecutive Reds reached base safely with one out in the first inning, generating five runs.
Bumgarner (6-10) owns a first-inning ERA of 7.59. He couldn't explain this phenomenon.
"I don't think there's really an answer for it," he said. "I got some ground balls and they found holes. I don't think the fact that it's the first inning has anything to do with it. Sometimes it's the third inning; sometimes it's the fifth."
Bumgarner, a North Carolina native, said that the 82-degree gametime temperature didn't bother him. But the considerable humidity did.
"It was hard to grip the ball," he said.
Throwing 40 pitches in the first inning also hampered Bumgarner, who said that this overload left him feeling "a little tired."
Reds starter Mike Leake (9-6) thought that Bumgarner might have downplayed the heat slightly, expressing the belief that it has "taken a little toll" on the Giants. Added Leake, "They're used to nice, cool nights, and I think both their starters took awhile to get going. I think the heat got to them a little bit."
Under ordinary circumstances, Bumgarner might not have survived the first inning. But, having used six relievers for 6 1/3 innings in Friday's 13-inning loss, Giants manager Bruce Bochy had to stick with Bumgarner to avoid taxing his bullpen.
Nevertheless, Bochy was about to declare that enough was enough.
"He was facing his last hitter," Bochy said, recalling Bumgarner's 40-pitch, 11-batter ordeal that ended when Edgar Renteria, who doubled off the left-field wall earlier in the inning, struck out.
Bochy also confessed, "I don't know if I had eight innings of [relief] pitching."
Bumgarner responded with perfect innings in the second and third. But the Giants played an imperfect inning in the fourth, when throwing errors by third baseman Pablo Sandoval and left fielder Nate Schierholtz helped Cincinnati score a pair of unearned runs.
Despite all this, the Giants had chances to jump back into contention. They actually outhit Cincinnati, 11-7. But they wasted that production by going 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. The Giants also encountered tough luck throughout the game (two line-drive outs, one warning-track fly) and, in the seventh inning, extreme frustration. Trailing by the ultimate five-run margin, they loaded the bases with one out against Leake. Then left-hander Bill Bray took over and disarmed San Francisco's two most dangerous hitters. Carlos Beltran, who has one hit in his first 14 at-bats as a Giant, hit a harmless fly ball to left field before Sandoval grounded out on a 3-2 pitch.
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