Cincinnati has actually been the better team thus far but doesn’t have the type of starting pitching to remain competitive for very long this season. The Giants badly need to win this series, but they are on the road for this one, which will make it tough.
The Reds, meanwhile, would love to keep taking positive forward steps as they figure out who to build around moving forward.
This series will be contested from Friday, May 5 through Sunday, May 7, 2017 at Great American Ballpark in CIncinnati, Ohio.
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Pitching Matchups
The Friday night game will feature a pair of veteran starters. Bronson Arroyo takes the mound for the Reds and enters with a 2-2 record but an ugly 7.20 ERA. His peripheral numbers aren’t as bad as the ERA indicates so Arroyo could be fine, but he’s no longer the pitcher he once was. The Giants will counter with Matt Cain, who is having a resurgent season with a 2-0 record and a 2.30 ERA. Cain has allowed one run or fewer in each of his past four starts.
The Reds will send youngster Amir Garrett to the mound on Saturday. He is 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA, and his 26 strikeouts against 10 walks in 30 innings pitched is encouraging. The Giants are going to use Ty Blach, who has entered the rotation in place of ace Madison Bumgarner, who is going to miss multiple months after crashing his off-road vehicle on an off-day last month. Blach has a 2.55 ERA and has been great in two starts, but has extremely low strikeout numbers, so a market correction could be coming.
In the finale, Cincinnati is slated to start veteran Scott Feldman against former Reds star Johnny Cueto. Feldman is 1-3 with a 4.83 ERA on the season and the Giants will be favored in this one since Cueto enters with a 4-1 record, and while his ERA is 4.81, he is a better pitcher than that.
Power Outage
The Giants’ offense has been dormant this season, as its XX runs scored is among the lowest in the majors leagues. Brandon Belt leads the team with four home runs on the season, and nobody else has more than two. The Giants need to start getting some more runs via the long ball or else the losing will continue.
San Francisco has often been able to rely on its starting pitching in past years when the offense has struggled, but without Bumgarner and because of struggles by Jeff Samardzija and Cueto, the record has tanked.
The Giants hope Belt and Buster Posey can lead the way for a lineup which needs to start hitting more.
Unexpected Contributors
The Reds are a surprising 13-14 on the season because they have gotten some nice contributions from some secondary hitters. While Joey Votto and Adam Duvall are the big bats in the middle of the lineup, Eugenio Suarez has given them some protection with a .322 batting average with six homers and 16 RBIs.
Zack Cozart has also been good, hitting .329 with a .423 on-base percentage and a .971 OPS. While the Reds aren’t likely to get those types of numbers from this pair the entire season, if they can stay hot against the Giants it gives the team a much more formidable lineup.
Even though the Giants are struggling, they have the superior pitching and may be able to come away with two wins in the three-game series in Cincinnati.
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