CINCINNATI — There was no way Kyle Harrison was going to one-up what his veteran rotation-mates, Blake Snell and Logan Webb, had accomplished the past two days. It wasn’t realistic to expect him to come close. Two teams in the past 40 years had strung together three consecutive shutouts from their starting pitchers, and neither incorporated a fresh-faced rookie.
It wasn’t Harrison who briefly had Great American Ballpark on no-hitter alert for the second straight evening.
For as dominant as Snell was Friday night, Reds third-year All-Star Hunter Greene was nearly as electric while handing the Giants a 6-4 loss.
Greene punched out 11 batters while blanking the Giants (55-57) for six innings. The only batter to muster a hit off Greene was Michael Conforto, whose two-out single in the fourth broke up Greene’s no-hit bid. Conforto later contributed one of three homers off Cincinnati’s bullpen that cut the final margin to two.
Newcomer Jerar Encarnacion, who took over for Heliot Ramos in the seventh inning, added a solo shot in the eighth — his first home run since being called up from Triple-A Sacramento before Friday’s game. Matt Chapman also pulled a solo blast in the ninth. But the Giants were held to four or fewer runs for their fourth consecutive game and the 15th time in their past 21 games.
At the Giants’ recent pace, it would have taken a multi-day scoring output to overcome the hole they were put in by Harrison, who allowed more hard contact in his first inning than in the entirety of Snell’s outing the previous night. Benefitting from Patrick Bailey preventing Elly De La Cruz from swiping his 56th bag, Harrison escaped the inning unscathed but it proved to only be a sign of things to come.
Cincinnati tagged him for four home runs, including two from catcher Tyler Stephenson, and chased him from the game with two outs in the fourth inning. The six runs he allowed matched a career-high, in 6-1 loss to the Padres last September, the only other occasion he surrendered four home runs.
Harrison allowed six total runs in four July starts and had reeled off 16 innings his previous three times on the mound while limiting opponents to two runs. His strong run came after lasting only 3⅓ innings in a July 6 loss at Cleveland, the only other time this season he has failed to complete five innings.
In his last start, Harrison came one out away from matching the longest start of his career while striking out 11 over 6⅔ one-hit innings. Before Saturday’s game, manager Bob Melvin mentioned the 22-year-old rookie had pitched more efficiently lately while saying he was “on his way to pitching a little bit deeper in games.”
Given an extra day of rest entering Saturday’s start, though, Harrison showed signs of wear and tear from the very beginning. In addition to the hard contact, Harrison’s fastball registered multiple sub-90 mph readings and by his last batter had recorded the four slowest fastballs he’d thrown this season.
The Giants placed their postseason hopes in the hands of a five-man rotation that showed the previous two days it could live up to its billing as the best in baseball but that also features two rookies in Harrison and Hayden Birdsong nearing career-high workloads.
Harrison threw 102⅓ innings last season between all levels, a total he will surpass the next time he takes the mound.
Every game matters in the Giants’ pursuit of a wild card spot, and the loss dropped them back into a tie with the Reds. They’re 4½ games back of the Mets, who hold the final of three spots and were still in progress against the Angels in Los Angeles. In between them in the standings, the Cardinals already won, and the Padres, Pirates and Diamondbacks were still in action at the final out.
The loss also prevented San Francisco from reaching .500 for the first time since they were 29-29 on May 31.
The Giants have since had seven opportunities to get to .500 but have lost all seven games.
Notable
Ramos had been battling a jammed right thumb and exited the game after striking out in the bottom of the sixth. The club did not immediately provide a reason for his departure.
Up next
LHP Robbie Ray (1-1, 4.82), who became the only other Giants’ starter to allow three home runs in his previous start, will look to rebound in the rubber match of the series against RHP Carson Spiers (4-2, 3.46). First pitch is extra early — 9:05 a.m. PT — with the game airing exclusively on Roku.
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