Don’t ask the Reds why they’ve dominated the Giants one year after San Francisco bounced them in last year’s playoffs on the way to its second World Series championship in three years.
After Wednesday’s 8-3 win over the Giants at AT&T Park, the Reds would prefer to acknowledge their 6-1 season series win and not ask any questions as they head to Los Angeles to continue their 11-game road trip with stops at all three National League West Coast cities.
“We’ve played better than them,” right fielder Jay Bruce said. “I don’t really know if there’s really a way to explain it. I don’t know.”
Bruce could point to the Reds’ offense if he’d like, which recorded 55 hits, 15 doubles and 22 extra-base hits in the four-game series to set an AT&T Park record.
Bruce himself knocked an RBI double in the third inning and scored two batters later to account for two of the three runs scored in the inning. The two-bagger was his 30th of the season — just five behind his career-best 35 set last season.
“It’s one of those things, the ebb and flow of the game,” Bruce said of the Reds’ recent offensive output. “We’re a very, very good offensive team. You get a couple guys hot at once and we got some action.”
Cincinnati’s success at the plate in San Francisco was illustrated by its production in run-scoring situations. The Reds hit 15-for-50 (.300) with runners in scoring position over the four games and outscored the Giants 44-12 in the seven contests between the two teams this year.
The Giants, in comparison, failed to capitalize on the 12 hits allowed by Reds starter Mike Leake in six-plus innings. They only managed a lone run in the third inning against the right-hander, who lowered his ERA from 2.79 to 2.76 in spite of the large hit total.
He pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth and was relieved by right-hander Sam LeCure with the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh. LeCure escaped the jam by striking out Jeff Francoeur, inducing a grounder from Buster Posey to get a forceout at home and striking out Guillermo Quiroz to end the threat.
“There was a time they had more hits than we did but we scored the runs,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “It wasn’t a really pretty game — it was a little chillier out there than what we’re used to this time of year — and it was just nice to come out here and win three out of four before going to L.A. tonight.”
“We had them on the ropes every inning,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “We squandered too many opportunities out there. It doesn’t matter how many hits you get, it’s how you get them sometimes. We just couldn’t get a timely hit.”
The Reds became well acquainted with San Francisco’s bullpen after no Giants starter made it through the fifth inning in any of the four games; Barry Zito’s 4 2/3 innings in Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader marked the club’s longest outing, and Giants relievers accounted for 21 1/3 of the 36 total innings.
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