SAN FRANCISCO — Johnny Cueto performed on the big stage, emergency fill-in Curt Casali homered and the San Francisco Giants beat the Oakland Athletics 2-0 Friday night in the first game of the Bay Bridge Series at Oracle Park.
Cueto pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up five hits with a walk and six strikeouts in improving to 6-3. That was just a bit better than Sean Manaea, also 6-3, who gave up one run in the fourth inning and nothing else. He gave up three hits, walked three and struck out seven.
The win for the Giants, 49-26, came on a night they learned Brandon Belt would be out indefinitely with a right knee injury and Buster Posey was scratched about 90 minutes before game time with a lower back strain.
Casali, who replaced Posey, hit his second home run of the season in the seventh inning against A’s reliever Cam Bedrosian. The Athletics, fighting to keep pace with the Houston Astros in the American League West, fell to 46-32.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler seemed to have an inkling as to what was to come from Cueto during his pregame talk with the media, given it was the first time the park was open to capacity and played to 36,928 fans.
“He loves the spotlight and he loves the big stage,” Kapler said. “The one thing we know about Johnny is every time he goes out there he’s entertaining and he emotes, and we like that. It’s fun to see a guy out there and show us what he’s dealing with and what he’s feeling. I have no doubt that he’ll put out his version of a show.”
The hitter that gave Cueto the most trouble was Manaea, who had a third inning double and an infield single after coming in with one career hit in 10 at-bats.
Tyler Rogers pitched the eighth and Jake McGee the ninth for his 15th save.
The Giants didn’t break through against Manaea until the fourth inning on Brandon Crawford’s two-out single to left which brought home Wilmer Flores.
Flores was the first Giants player to reach second base against Manaea with a two-out double to left. Playing with a sore hamstring, Flores managed to chug in to second base and given the way he was running, it was no sure thing he’d score on a single.
Crawford, however, singled cleanly but softly to left field, giving Flores enough time to make his way to home plate for a 1-0 Giants lead.
Cueto was casting an early spell on the A’s similar to that of Manaea, with the opposing pitcher’s surprising two-out double to right field leading to a bases loaded situation with two outs. Cueto got out of the inning by getting Matt Olson to fly to center.
