Rewind: Giants give up lead, lose second straight to Phillies

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PHILADELPHIA — Bruce Bochy likes to say that your ace starters are also good closers, and Johnny Cueto has played both roles as well as any pitcher in baseball this season. But on Wednesday, Cueto blew the save.

The Giants took a 4-0 lead into the seventh, but Cueto gave up two homers in that inning and then allowed the tying runs in the eighth. Mix in a lineup that went 19 at-bats without a hit in the heart of the game and you’ve got one of the worst losses of the season. Maikel Franco walked the Giants off in the bottom of the 12th, but this 5-4 defeat happened because of a collection of plays before the final one. 

Cueto was dominant early, striking out eight of the first 16 Phillies he faced. But as he shot past 100 pitches, the Phillies completed their comeback. Bochy stuck with Cueto, and his 111th pitch was lined into right by Franco, tying the game. 

It seemed Cueto was only still out there because Hunter Strickland and Derek Law were unavailable after pitching four straight games, but Bochy said that wasn’t the case. 

“No, no, no. He’s our guy,” Bochy said of Cueto. “He’s the guy I wanted out there in that situation. He just made a mistake there. We checked on him and he felt fine. He was throwing well.”

Cueto said he still felt strong. He just made too many mistakes in his final two innings. 

“The only thing I can say is they beat me,” Cueto said through interpreter Erwin Higueros.

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The Giants can say that for a lot of teams in the second half. They are 4-13 since the break and 1-9 on the road. They have lost back-to-back games to the Phillies with Madison Bumgarner and Cueto on the mound. 

While Cueto was disappointed to have given the lead back, this one was on most of the roster. The Giants didn’t have a hit between Denard Span’s fourth inning single (wiped out by a double play) and Hunter Pence’s single in the 11th. They didn’t score after Brandon Belt’s sacrifice fly that made it 4-0 in the third. The quiet night happened mostly against a Phillies bullpen that is 12th in the National League in ERA.

“We couldn’t do anything with their bullpen,” Bochy said. “We couldn’t get anyone on. Four runs in this ballpark, anything can happen. That’s the difference in the game. Their bullpen shut us down completely.”

That continued into extra innings, and in the 12th, the Giants finally gave it up. They had flirted with disaster for an hour, but the winning run came after former Giants prospect Tommy Joseph (traded for Pence) was hit by a George Kontos fastball leading off the 12th. A sac bunt by reliever Luis Garcia pushed Joseph along, and a walk of Cesar Hernandez ended Kontos’ night. Bochy wanted a fresh arm, and he turned to Jake Peavy, who was making his first relief appearance since 2011. 

Peavy had stayed loose all night, stretching on the grass in the bullpen and throwing as Kontos went into his second inning. Bochy wanted a ground ball and Peavy got it. But Eduardo Nunez, who cost Bumgarner four runs with an error Tuesday, bobbled the ball. Instead of having a shot at two outs and at the very least getting the runner at second, the bases were loaded.

“I feel comfortable out there, but sometimes you have a bad series,” Nunez said. “The last two games have been a tough series for me. It happens sometimes. Nowhere to go, you’ve got two more months. That happened and you have tomorrow to turn the page. It’s in the past. Keep working and tomorrow is another day. You learn from these errors. You learn from that situation. Everyone is in that situation at some point.”

Nunez put Peavy in a brutal spot in his first appearance since being bumped from the rotation. The next batter, Franco, lined a single up the middle to end the long night. 

“It happened fast,” Peavy said. 

Pence chased the winning liner down and threw to Buster Posey to get an out since Aaron Altherr never touched second. But it didn’t matter. That was simply bookkeeping. This was ultimately another second-half loss for the a slumping team.

“It’s hard to believe,” Cueto said. “We’re a good team. The only thing to do is keep grinding.”

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