Breaking down the Cincinnati Reds seven-run ninth inning en route to securing a 10-9 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
The San Francisco Giants have hit rock bottom.
At Oracle Park on Wednesday afternoon, 10-9 was the final score at as the Cincinnati Reds managed to score seven runs in the ninth inning to avoid being swept.
Manager Tony Vitello was ejected in the first inning arguing a checked swing call, but the Giants ended up doing just fine without him until the ninth inning came around.
With a chance to put the game away and sweep their first opponent of the season, the Reds jumped all over this pitching staff, and the Giants' defense forgot how to play baseball.
It'll go down as one of the ugliest losses in all of baseball this season as the Giants have fallen to 54-79 in a complete 180 of their performances these past two nights.
Breaking down the Giants' ninth-inning collapse
Despite entering the ninth inning with a 9-3 lead, the Giants' relief pitchers were picked apart one-by-one against a Reds team that believes they can still fight their way into the playoffs.
Cincinnati outhit San Francisco, 15-12, in a game that saw the top of the ninth begin with a solo home run, and the rest was history.
After the home run, it was single, walk, walk, home run, infield single, bunt single, sacrifice fly, single, and it's worth noting there were a pair of wild pitches and a stolen base in the equation as well.
Dylan Smith fell to 0-5 on the year, but obviously, there were more players to fault than just him. He was one of three pitchers to appear in the inning, and thankfully, Reiver Sanmartin got the Giants out of it with only a one-run deficit, but by that point the damage had been done.
The Reds led 1-0 in the top of the second, but the Giants took a 2-1 lead, only for things to be tied at two apiece through three innings.
San Francisco scored two runs in both the fifth and sixth innings, and while the Reds scored one in the seventh, the Giants added three more in an impressive eighth inning.
Ultimately, none of that mattered.
Blowing a 9-3 lead is as bad as it gets, and this loss couldn't have come at a worse time. Vitello getting ejected is one thing, but it felt like even with all of the injuries that have piled up, this Giants team was starting to put something together. Clearly, that's not the case, as their disastrous season has somehow reached a new low.
