The 5th man of the Giants starting rotation, Kevin Correia, had to leave the game early with a strained oblique muscle after throwing only nine pitches.
Brad Hennessey came in and gave up a run in the first which led to flurry of offense for both teams in the succeeding frames.
Early on, the Giants scored with small ball. None more representative than Emmanuel Burris' run in the 2nd. With Rich Aurilla on first base, Burris grounded into a fielders' choice, stole second, moved to third on Steve Holm's groundout and scored on Brad Hennessey's single.
Later in the night after the Reds scored consistently against the Giants bullpen, the offense was forced to swing for the fences. The players didn't disappoint. Fred Lewis became the first Giant in a long while to hit a homerun into the bay waters. Aurilla followed up in the 6th with a solo shot into the left field bleachers.
Unforunately, despite the Giants' offensive outburst, the Reds were too much. The Reds scored twice in the 6th and thrice in the 7th on bad pitching and even poorer defense to build a 5-run lead over the Giants.
With the 9th inning looming, many probably felt the game was over, myself included. The Giants aren't built to score a boatload of runs due to their lack of power. But, the team proved me wrong. One run scored on consecutive doubles from Holm and Jose Castillo. Lewis walked and scored along with Castillo on Eugenio Velez's triple. Randy Winn ground out scored Velez and the Giants were right back in the thick of things.
Down by one, Dan Ortmeier was up at the plate. Was he going to reprise his hero role earlier in the season? The grounder to second proved not. And with Ray Durham getting struck out on three straight pitches, the Giants rally in the bottom of the ninth came up short.
Even with the poor pitching performances by Hennessey, Yabu, and Taschner, there was a lot of good things to take out of the game. The Giants scored nine runs! Who would of thought the team would even reach above three after the low scoring outings in the previous three games.
The great thing about the offensive outburst was the fact the young kids were the ones who came through. Velez and Burriss' speed proved disruptive for the Reds. Lewis is becoming an all-around hitter who can hit for average and power. Even Holm showed off a little pop on his bat.
But, the most surprising batter of the day has to go to Brad Hennessey. In his only at-bat in the game, Hennessey worked the count full, taking a number of close balls which someone like Pedro Feliz would have flailed away at. Once he got the pitch he was looking for, Hennessey drove it into center field with authority and collected an RBI. Other players on the team would have popped the ball up or struck out. If the pitching thing doesn't work out for Hennessey, he may have a shot at becoming a position player. Hey, if Rick Ankiel can do it, so can Brad Hennessey!
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