PHOENIX — After losing three consecutive games for only the second time this season, a trip to the desert was supposed to be the medicine the San Francisco Giants needed to cure what’s been ailing them.
The Arizona Diamondbacks personify a cellar dweller. They began Thursday’s four-game series 29.5 games back of the Giants in the National League West, had lost nine in a row to Gabe Kapler’s club and were without their best player, Ketel Marte, who recently landed on the injured list.
The Giants had every reason to believe they’d start July by snapping their losing streak. Instead it reached a season-long four games.
Right fielder Mike Yastrzemski and third baseman Wilmer Flores each hit home runs, but starter Johnny Cueto gave up a pair of his own in a shaky start that sent the Giants tumbling to a 5-3 defeat.
Before Thursday’s game, Kapler said Cueto was receiving fluids as he was still recovering from an illness. Cueto wasn’t visibly sluggish on the mound against Arizona, but his command wasn’t nearly as crisp as it was a week ago when he tossed seven scoreless innings in a shutout win over Oakland.
After the Giants took a 1-0 first inning lead on Yastrzemski’s solo home run to right field, Cueto gave the lead back to the Diamondbacks in the second when Merrill Kelly snapped a 43-at-bat hitless streak at the plate with a bloop single into shallow left field.
Kelly entered Thursday’s game 1-for-77 in his career as a hitter, but after the Giants intentionally walked catcher Stephen Vogt to face the pitcher, Kelly worked a 3-2 count before breaking his bat with the go-ahead single to drive in Josh VanMeter from second base.
The Giants regained control of Thursday’s game when Flores followed Brandon Crawford’s fourth inning single with a 429-foot two-run shot that landed halfway up the left field bleachers. Flores’ home run marked the longest of his career since Statcast began tracking batted ball data in 2015, but once again, Cueto was unable to protect the Giants’ lead.
Veteran outfielder Josh Reddick pushed the D’backs ahead 4-3 with a two-run home run that narrowly cleared the right field wall. Reddick’s first home run of the season came on a first pitch changeup from Cueto that traveled over the heart of the plate and it wasn’t the last damage the D’backs did against the Giants starter.
In the fifth inning, Pavin Smith sent a 438-foot blast into the right center field bleachers, giving Arizona a 5-3 lead and making the D’backs the fifth team to hit a pair of home runs against Cueto in one start this season.
A Giants offense that’s engineered a handful of comebacks against the D’backs this year struggled in the late innings as Kelly retired the final seven San Francisco batters he faced while relievers Noe Ramirez and Joakim Soria shut the door.
—Webb makes rehab start
Right-hander Logan Webb (shoulder strain) began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento Thursday as he tossed two innings of one-run ball against the Las Vegas Aviators.
Kapler said Webb’s next outing will be a three-inning, 45-pitch stint out of the bullpen so the Giants can get him more accustomed to pitching in relief. Building up Webb’s pitch count and using him as a reliever should offer the club added flexibility when the righty is ready to return from the injured list.
