Cincinnati Reds' weaknesses exposed during series loss to San Francisco Giants

A combined perfect game for four innings Sunday at Great American Ball Park turned into anything but perfect for the Cincinnati Reds by the time the San Francisco Giants got done beating them 6-3 to win the opening series of the season.

The series exposed at least two of the Reds’ concerns entering the season.

The first was a closer-less bullpen that blew a ninth-inning lead in Thursday’s opener with Ian Gibaut getting the unlikely save opportunity.

Nick Martinez retired the first 13 batters he faced Sunday in his first start of the season before allowing four earned runs in six innings of the 6-3 loss to the Giants.

The second was a questionable fielding group, the Giants tacking a pair of unearned runs onto a one-run lead in the eighth after Elly De La Cruz’s throwing error to start the inning. The Reds had played errorless, at times exceptional, ball in the series up to that point, so maybe the greater weakness at play here is the lack of margin for any error at all against good teams.

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Pitcher Brent Suter added another throwing error in the ninth on a two-out bunt (without further damage).

The Reds scored more than three runs only once, and that fourth run Thursday was helped by a runner advancing on an indifference play when they trailed by three after the Giants big rally against Gibaut. This Giants team is improved since last year but not among the five or six more elite teams in the National League this year.

The Reds showed glimpses in the series of what they expect to be the strength of any success they have this year: A starting rotation that combined for 17 innings and eight earned runs in the series.

It was 16 innings and five earned runs until Nick Martinez gave up a two-out, run-scoring double, followed by a Matt Chapman home run in his final inning Sunday.

He was dominant early, retiring the first 13 batters he faced as he and Giants starter Robbie Ray put together a combined perfect game for four full innings.

Ray took his into the sixth before Gavin Lux led off with a single, and Austin Wynns followed one out later with a two-run homer.

Ray seemed displeased by a pitch-timer violation immediately preceding the home run ball, and after Matt McLain followed with his second home run in as many days, fans began chanting the countdown of the pitch clock during an ensuing four-pitch walk to Santiago Espinal.

That was Ray’s last batter.

It was also as close as the Reds got on this day.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds’ weaknesses exposed during series loss to Giants

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Cincinnati Reds’ weaknesses exposed during series loss to San Francisco Giants

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