Missing from Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader between the Reds and Giants was the sense of finality that usually accompanies a game’s completion.
There was no rush to the exits from the 42,310 fans in attendance at AT&T Park. The victorious Reds awarded each other with high-fives at the heart of the infield after the final out. The Giants’ fans, muffled in defeat, sat in their seats and waited.
In many ways, the two-game affair simply felt like an extended contest with a 30-minute intermission. The two adversaries soon returned to the field to play the back nine innings of the doubleheader, wiped the scoreboard clean and started over.
Cloaked in red alternate jerseys with white pants and topped off with their road batting practice hats, the Reds served as pseudo hosts to the Giants at AT&T Park in a makeup game for their Fourth of July rainout in Cincinnati.
They fell in Game 2, 5-3, to finish the day 1-1 after Zack Cozart’s four hits and three Reds homers backed a solid start by Tony Cingrani the Reds’ 9-3 win in the opener. After 18 innings of baseball, the Reds (57-44) lost a half-game game on the National League Central-leading Cardinals, who won their game against the Phillies, 4-1.
“It felt like 18 innings,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “The first one felt like 12 or 13.”
In Game 2, San Francisco tagged Reds starter Greg Reynolds for three runs in a 30-pitch first inning and added an additional run one inning later to take the 4-0 lead. The Reds had limited the Giants to six runs in the five prior games they’d played this season.
Cincinnati’s limited scoring in the second game can be attributed to its inability to produce with runners in scoring position. The Reds finished the game 1-for-12 in scoring opportunities, after starting Game 1 5-for-5.
“Just one or two would have been nice,” Baker said. “We threatened. I think we had baserunners almost every inning. It looked like we had a man at second base a bunch of times, but the pitching shut us down.”
The Reds’ lone hit in run-scoring situations came in the second inning after consecutive singles by Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier led to a two-run double by Corky Miller to cut the deficit to 4-2. Cincinnati advanced runners to second base in every inning but the first.
“We were never really out of it,” said Jay Bruce, who went 4-for-8 with four runs scored in the two games. “We just couldn’t get the timely hit and Barry [Zito] was making enough pitches to skirt around it.”
Zito allowed three runs on six hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings in Game 2 after Eric Surkamp was knocked out of Game 1 in the third inning.
The Reds failed to take advantage of a Giants bullpen that had pitched 11 2/3 innings in two games leading up to the nightcap. Cincinnati, meanwhile, had set itself up more favorably after Cingrani pitched 6 2/3 innings in the opener and Bronson Arroyo threw a shutout in the game prior.
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