This story was originally published by Dead Spin
In a series that has been dominated by stellar starting pitching, the visiting San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds will play the rubber game on Sunday afternoon.
On Friday, lefty Blake Snell tossed the 18th no-hitter in Giants franchise history when he blanked the Reds 3-0.
Cincinnati right-hander Hunter Greene answered Saturday by tossing six shutout innings, allowing just one hit, striking out a season-high 11 and running his scoreless innings streak to 21.
In hopes of getting another strong pitching outing, the Giants will send their third straight lefty starter to the mound in Robbie Ray (1-1, 4.82 ERA). The Reds counter with right-hander Carson Spiers (4-2, 3.46), who will be making his seventh start and 12th appearance this season.
On Saturday, Greene’s intensity spilled over into an emotional display in each of his final three innings, as he yelled into his glove after each strikeout.
“I talk to myself a lot,” Greene said. “In the past, I set myself up for failure in some ways with almost fearing that in a situation I can’t give this up, or this can’t happen in this situation.”
Offensively, the Reds answered Friday night’s no-hitter with four home runs in their 6-4 win.
“It doesn’t surprise me about our players,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I knew that. But that’s not to say it’s easy. I think there’s a lot to be said for confidence in this game. And when you don’t get any hits, you really have to force yourself to get over that quickly.
“I think our team did a good job of that (Saturday), starting from the very beginning of the game. It was a big night for our offense, not only to score six runs, but just after (Friday), kind of just turning the page.”
The Giants clubbed three home runs of their own, one each from Michael Conforto, Matt Chapman and Jerar Encarnacion — the last a defensive substitute in right field when Heliot Ramos was pulled with recurring right thumb soreness. It was Encarnacion’s first homer with the Giants and his first since his days with the Miami Marlins in September 2022.
Manager Bob Melvin indicated Ramos could sit for Sunday’s series finale.
Jordan Hicks was a bright spot for the Giants on Saturday, coming out of the bullpen with velocity that approached 100 mph. A starter for most of the season, he threw two shutout innings, allowing one hit and one walk.
“Today is the best he’s felt in quite some time. So we’ll see where we go from it,” Melvin said. “He maintained his velocity, had good movement on it, got a ground ball when he needed a ground ball. He looks a lot better right now.”
Ray will be making his third start with San Francisco. Ray, who had Tommy John surgery in May 2023, was tagged for four runs on seven hits over 4 1/3 innings on Tuesday in a 5-2 loss to Oakland.
Ray is 1-2 with a 4.44 ERA in five career starts against Cincinnati, although he has not faced the Reds since 2019 when he was with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
As for Spiers, in Monday’s 7-1 win over the visiting Chicago Cubs, he allowed just one hit over five shutout innings. Spiers has won four of his last five starts and has become a valuable part of the Reds rotation due to an injury to Graham Ashcraft and the trade of Frankie Montas to Milwaukee.
Spiers is making his first career start against San Francisco.
–Field Level Media
