After stealing a 5-4 victory on Wednesday night against Detroit, the San Francisco Giants entered Thursday’s series finale in an ideal position to fly home with their third consecutive series win.
That is, until right-hander Johnny Cueto was scratched minutes before taking the mound.
With Cueto sidelined due to an inner ear infection, San Francisco turned to rookie Chris Stratton, who was roughed up his first time through the Tigers’ order as Detroit rode an early wave of success to a 6-2 win.
In his first career Major League start, the Giants’ 2012 first round draft choice surrendered four runs in his first two innings of work, and gave up a two-run home run to Detroit shortstop Dixon Machado that marked the first round-tripper of Machado’s career.
After Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy was forced to use five different relievers in San Francisco’s Wednesday night win, Stratton battled his way through 6 and 2/3 innings to give his bullpen adequate rest, but his offense couldn’t dig itself out of an early hole.
The Giants started Thursday’s game having won seven of their past eight games, including four of their first five on their road trip, and had plenty of reason to believe Cueto could out-duel struggling Detroit right-hander Anibal Sanchez. However, the Giants never got the matchup they were looking for, and failed to take advantage of Sanchez, who lasted six innings and gave up just two runs while striking out eight San Francisco hitters.
Stratton gave up a two-out walk in the first inning to Tigers’ left fielder Justin Upton, who stole second base and came around to score on a Miguel Cabrera RBI single that gave Detroit an early 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, a leadoff triple by Nick Castellanos set the table for Alex Presley’s RBI single to double Detroit’s advantage. After striking out catcher James McCann, Stratton ran a fastball over the inner half of the plate that Machado launched into the left field seats at Comerica Park.
After Detroit tallied an additional run in the third inning, Sanchez kept the Giants off the scoreboard until the top of the sixth when center fielder Denard Span roped a leadoff single and came around to score on an RBI triple that second baseman Joe Panik laced down the right field line.
In the ensuing at-bat, Giants’ designated hitter Hunter Pence plated Panik with a groundout to second base, but that’s all the offense the Giants mustered against Sanchez, who entered Thursday’s start with a 6.34 earned run average this season.
Stratton’s first career Major League start came in the midst of a season in which he’s struggled as a starter with the Giants’ AAA affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats. Still, after posting a 5.71 ERA with the River Cats this season, Stratton was called up to join the Giants over the weekend in Pittsburgh to take the spot of right-hander Dan Slania, who replaced closer Mark Melancon after Melancon was placed on the disabled list last week with a pronator strain.
Initially, the Giants planned to use Stratton in a relief role during Melancon’s absence, but with Cueto unable to pitch on Thursday, Bochy called on the Giants’ 2012 first round draft choice to make an emergency start and give San Francisco an opportunity to secure a series win.
Though Stratton was roughed up early, he did complete 3 and 2/3 shutout innings to finish off his outing before fellow rookie Kyle Crick took over in relief.
With the loss, the Giants dropped back to 19 games below .500, and will return home on Friday to face the Miami Marlins in a three-game set before the All-Star break begins on Monday.