Giants making lots of news but not with bats, lose to lowly Reds again

Within the first two video games of a 10-game journey, nonetheless, the Giants have achieved little to generate a lot consideration. Particularly their offense.

Six hits in Friday’s 5-1 loss to the last-place Cincinnati Reds, all singles. After which a 3-2 loss Saturday by which the guests went 3-for-16 with runners in scoring place. That they had loads of hits, 12, however not when it counted most.

The Giants’ runs got here on Joc Pederson’s RBI double and Evan Longoria’s homer. Largely, it was missed alternatives. Tommy La Stella opened the sport with a double and was stranded, and the bases had been loaded within the second for Curt Casali and La Stella, neither of whom delivered.

One other alternative was wasted within the ninth. Casali opened with a single, and Joey Bart ran for him. However La Stella struck out, and after Mike Yastrzemski walked, Darin Ruf additionally Ok’d. Wilmer Flores lined a single to proper subject, and Aristides Aquino threw out Bart on the plate by a large margin.

“Powerful name, clearly, however we and I fully assist the choice to ship him there,” Kapler stated of third base coach Mark Hallberg waving dwelling Bart. “You must make the outfielder make the throw in that scenario with two outs. It’s robust to get back-to-back hits in that scenario, and there’s all the time an opportunity a throw is off line.”

Bart is way quicker than Casali and stated to be quicker than any pitchers on employees. An alternative choice was outfielder Stuart Fairchild, the ultimate place participant. However the way in which Aquino charged the ball and fired it, it’s questionable if anybody on the Giants’ roster would have been protected.

The sport ended with Brandon Crawford, who has three hits within the sequence, on deck.

The Giants left 11 males on base, an ideal system for his or her ninth loss in 13 video games. Nice American Ball Park is meant to be hitter pleasant however not for the Giants to this point.

Wooden, Farmer reunion: Alex Wooden was wanting ahead to dealing with Kyle Farmer, his outdated teammate in faculty and two big-league groups, however wasn’t thrilled with the end result.

Of their first face-off on the MLB stage, Farmer smoked a three-run homer within the first inning, which set the tone for the remainder of the afternoon.

“He bought the higher of me,” Wooden stated, “but when it’s going to be someone over there, I’m glad it was him I assume.”

Wooden and Farmer performed collectively on the College of Georgia and each the Dodgers and Reds. Actually, in December 2018, the Dodgers traded each gamers (together with Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig) to Cincinnati.

“Kyle’s my greatest good friend,” Wooden stated. “We had been roommates for a few years at Georgia. I left, and he stayed for his senior yr. He bought drafted the next season and lived with me for 2 or three offseaons at my place in Atlanta. He moved out when he began getting critical together with his now spouse.”

Wooden recovered from the homer to pitch scoreless ball the remainder of his 5 2/3-inning outing, retiring 15 of 16 batters till Joey Votto’s sixth-inning single.

Wooden twice struck out the six-time All-Star and was pulled as soon as Votto bought the bottom hit. Farmer was the following batter. It was Wooden’s longest begin of the season, a very good signal contemplating he was coming off his worst efficiency of 2022: 5 runs on eight hits in three innings in opposition to San Diego.

One in all Wooden’s favourite baseball reminiscences was Farmer’s first major-league hit, a walk-off double in July 2017 in opposition to … the Giants.

“I keep in mind being extra nervous for his first at-bat and that first hit he bought than I’ve ever been in my complete profession,” Wooden stated.

Casali will get probability: Casali got here off the concussion injured record and instantly was inserted into the lineup, the brand new obvious No. 1 catcher. Catcher Michael Papierski was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento, and Bart remained on the roster regardless of his offensive woes.

“Curt is a catcher who’s serving to us win baseball video games, so it’s exhausting to not need him to be within the lineup recurrently,” Kapler stated, “and on the similar time, we’ve got to be cognizant of the actual fact he can’t catch on daily basis for us, and we wish to proceed Joey Bart’s growth and provides him alternatives to carry out.”

Papierski, hitless in his transient time within the majors, was given just a few issues to work on in Triple-A, together with this: “We expect he may very well be extra aggressive on fastballs early within the depend which can be type of in the course of the plate,” Kapler stated.

John Shea is The San Francisco Chronicle’s nationwide baseball author. Electronic mail: jshea@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey