This was the kind of night that sticks with a team.
The Reds walked into Oracle Park on Monday, Aug. 24, and got buried 5-0 by a Giants club that looked a lot more like Triple-A Sacramento than San Francisco. With four call-ups in the starting lineup and another coming out of the bullpen, the Giants rolled out a patchwork group that still carved up Cincinnati from the jump.
Jeff Brantley said it best: “This is like a spring training B game.” The Reds, though, had their regular lineup out there.
That mismatch made what happened next even harder to explain. Chase Burns, who came in at 13-2 with a 2.51 earned run average, got attacked immediately. The first four Giants reached on a double, single, single and double, and San Francisco had a 2-0 lead before Burns even recorded an out.
The damage kept coming in the second. Burns retired the first two hitters, then watched Christian Koss single, Drew Gilbert drop a double into shallow left, and Rafael Devers launch a three-run homer 427 feet to center. By the time Burns was done, the Giants had five runs and nine hits off him in just 3⅔ innings.
The biggest swing came from the one familiar name in San Francisco’s lineup. Devers turned on a 98 mph fastball and crushed it, while Gilbert - Burns’ former Tennessee teammate - kept setting the table. Gilbert doubled in the first, doubled again in the second and scored twice.
Carson Whisenhunt, who entered with a 7.03 earned run average, handled the Reds’ bats from the other side. He held Cincinnati scoreless on two hits with three strikeouts over 2⅔ innings before leaving with elbow discomfort on his 47th pitch in the third, after two outs and runners on first and third.
From there, San Francisco leaned on the bullpen, and the relief corps did its job. The Giants used six pitchers overall, five of them from what the source described as statistically the worst bullpen in MLB, and the group kept the Reds off the board over the final 6⅓ innings.
Jason Foley struck out Dane Myers and then struck out the next two hitters in the fourth after taking over for Whisenhunt. Randy Walker, just called up, was among the five relievers who combined to allow no runs and three hits the rest of the way.
The shutout carried historical weight, too. It was the first time since 1901 that a team used six or more pitchers in a shutout of the Reds. Cincinnati was blanked for the 14th time this season, tying the Pittsburgh Pirates for the most in MLB.
The Reds’ offense never found a gear. They managed just five singles, including one infield hit, and struck out 11 times. Against a Giants team that had lost four straight and 16 of its previous 21, Cincinnati’s lineup never solved the foggy night at Oracle Park.
After Burns was lifted, the Reds got a little relief work of their own. Sam Moll, Julian Garcia and Emilio Pagan kept San Francisco to no runs and one hit over the final 4⅓ innings, but the game was long gone by then.
Tito Francona said Burns was struggling to get his stuff where he wanted it.
“His fastball. . .he was yanking it,” Francona told reporters. “They were very aggressive and he was pitching into their swings.
“And he wasn’t able to get his normal breaking ball depth,” he continued. “You don’t see that very often against him. There was some heavy contact.”
Asked whether Burns’ workload this season factored into the decision to pull him in the fourth, Francona said, “Yes. Once I thought we could get through the game (with the bullpen) and not have it affect tomorrow, that’s when I went and got him.”
By then, the score and the way it unfolded had already made the night ugly enough. The Reds were headed to their eighth loss in 11 games, and this one had the look and feel of something much worse.
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Reds Suddenly Have A Bigger Concern Than Another Pitcher Nearing Return
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Brady Singer, though, introduced a more immediate concern when he felt a rib injury during his start and stayed in the game before getting further evaluation. The Reds can only do so much with arms returning if the lineup keeps sputtering, and Terry Francona has already been talking about the clubs approach at the plate as Cincinnati keeps looking for answers on both sides of the ball. [Read more 🡒]
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Reds Suddenly Have A Brady Singer Concern They Can't Ignore
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Terry Francona said Singer did not seem worried about the injury, and the plan was for him to be evaluated again the next day. For a Reds club trying to keep its rotation steady, any issue involving a starter who can keep working through contact is the kind of thing that gets checked and rechecked before everyone feels better about it. [Read more 🡒]