'He did his job': One mistake costs Giants, Stripling in quality start

CINCINNATI -- Ross Stripling, still building up as a starter, cruised for six innings on Wednesday evening. But one mistake pitch cost him -- and the Giants -- in their 3-2 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park, which snapped their seven-game win streak.

Stripling retired the first six batters he faced on Wednesday before giving up a single to Christian Encarnacion-Strand to lead off the third inning. Tyler Stephenson followed with another single, which brought up Will Benson. Though Benson is the Reds’ No. 9 hitter, Cincinnati manager David Bell has used the lefty as sort of a second leadoff batter due to his power-speed combination.

Benson took a low pitch to get ahead in the count. Stripling then offered a backdoor slider, or at least he tried to. The pitch ended up nearly in the middle of the zone, perfect for Benson to send out the other way to end the shutout.

“That was a spot to Benson that people had success in scouting reports,” Stripling said. “Then we watched the first two games between Webb and some other guys really had some success with backdoor breaking balls. And I threw one that was backdoor ... and he punched it after two guys had gotten on, and that was all it took.”

Perhaps Benson caught wind of the Giants’ strategy facing him.

“I know [Stripling] was using that slider quite a bit in the first two innings, but I wasn't necessarily looking for that," Benson said postgame.

The rest of Stripling’s night was very clean. After Benson’s home run, Stripling only allowed one more baserunner: A double to shallow center by TJ Friedl later in that third inning. He only struck out two batters the entire night, but Stripling succeeded at limiting quality contact on balls hit in play. He allowed hard contact (exit velocity over 95 mph) on seven of the 20 balls put in play, and three of those were groundouts.

“It's a tough lineup to get through and one of the top offenses in the game,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “[I] thought [Stripling] did a really nice job. They just got one more big hit than we did, and that was the difference in the game. I really, really thought we did fight all the way to the end.

But the laborious third inning was just another instance of Stripling struggling to limit hard contact with runners on. Entering the start, Stripling allowed 2.4 home runs per nine innings -- the worst rate in the Majors this season among pitchers with at least 50 innings. Of the 35 runs he’s allowed (one unearned), 24 of them -- a whopping 68.6 percent -- have scored on one of the 13 homers he’s given up this season.

“Kinda the story of my year: All of my runs seem to be given up on home runs," Stripling said. "But overall, [the start was] still definitely a step in the right direction. [My] pitches are pretty zoned in right now. Staying in my lanes, mixing in everything, any time, any count so [I'm] starting to feel like myself and able to get six innings when the bullpen needed it for sure.”

Stripling’s long-ball issue didn’t disappear, but his start on Wednesday was a positive sign for his longevity. It was the first time this season that he’d pitched into the sixth inning. It was the fourth time this year that he’d gone through the order a third time, retiring all four batters he faced on Wednesday. He held the first four batters in Cincinnati's lineup to 1-for-12 combined, with Friedl’s double being the only hit.

Stripling threw 76 pitches -- his highest pitch count since throwing 90 on May 7. In between, he’s had an IL stint and made two appearances out of the bullpen. While he’s been healthy for five appearances (four starts) now, the Giants are still slowly building him up to full strength.

“It's been awhile since he has [worked six innings], so that would've been a seventh,” Kapler said. “And usually what we like to do with pitchers, we like to kind of build them up slowly, kind of a longer, slower ramp. It's the most dependable way to prevent injuries.

"So we usually cap it at some number of pitches or some number of ups, and he was kind of at both his pitches and his ups. He did his job. He pitched six innings for us and gave us a chance to win the baseball game.”