SAN FRANCISCO -- A resident of Northern California, Reds reliever
DeSclafani was finished after four innings with four earned runs and eight hits allowed. Manager David Bell was ready to put the 4-4 game in the hands of his bullpen after the Reds evened it on Eugenio Suarez’s homer to begin the top of the fifth.\n\n“I didn’t feel like he was quite as sharp tonight. He was missing a little bit in the middle of the plate with some of his pitches,” Bell said of DeSclafani. “Could he have gone back out and thrown two scoreless innings? Yeah, we believe in him that much. That was the decision I felt had to be made there. We had a fully rested bullpen.”\n\nFirst, Robert Stephenson pitched a scoreless fifth inning and gave way to lefty Amir Garrett for the sixth. A blooped single by Steven Duggar as Nick Senzel and Jesse Winker collided, followed by a wild pitch, put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Donovan Solano walked to bring up Joe Panik and in a pivotal play, Duggar tried to steal third base and was called out on catcher Tucker Barnhart’s throw and Suarez’s tag. The call was challenged unsuccessfully by the Giants, and it proved big. After Panik walked, Garrett recovered to strike out Stephen Vogt.
In the seventh, the Reds took the lead when Suarez led off with a double and later scored the go-ahead run from third base on Dietrich’s two-out blooped single. Then it was up to Hernandez to hold the lead.\n\nGiven the middle of the Giants’ order, he struck out the side -- Evan Longoria, Pablo Sandoval and Mac Williamson -- with fastballs that were all 94 mph.\n\nThen in the eighth, Hernandez sandwiched Kevin Pillar’s flyout between strikeouts of Brandon Crawford and Duggar.\n\n“Bro, that’s probably the nastiest,” Garrett said. “Something’s got into David, because he’s striking out guys with bases loaded, striking out guys. Striking out what, five today? I don’t know who that guy is. He’s somebody else. I love that fight in him, that bulldog in him. That’s awesome. That’s what our team needs right there, for situations to arise like that.”\n\nSince he gave up three runs on April 28, Hernandez has retired 21 of 24 batters in seven scoreless innings over six appearances.\n\n“You wish you had that stuff every night. I had some extra motivation with a lot of family being here and being so close to home,” Hernandez said. “You never want it to snowball on you in front of your family and friends. You just have to make some pitches, execute. That’s a very good, scrappy, talented lineup.”