CINCINNATI — Andrew Abbott and Derek Law combined on two-hitter, Luke Maile homered and the Cincinnati Reds the beat San Francisco Giants 5-1 on Thursday for a four-game split.
Abbott (5-2), a 24-year-old rookie left-hander making his ninth big league start, allowed one hit in a career-high eight innings, getting help by another record throw from rookie shortstop Elly De La Cruz. Abbott retired his first eight batters before walking Brett Wisely, then walked Wilmer Flores starting the fourth.
“I actually came up to Luke after that last inning and said I didn’t have my best stuff at all today but at the end of the day, you have to go out and compete," Abbott said of his catcher. “I made some good adjustments in the middle of the game. I was just focusing on direction, so I stopped those wide misses. I made a good enough adjustment just to get in the zone."
Luis Matos hit a double that went to the left-field wall on two hops for the only hit against Abbott. Left fielder Will Benson threw to De La Cruz, whose one-hop relay was up the first-base line. Maile grabbed the ball, and the catcher lunged toward the plate and tagged the sliding Flores in the batter's box.
“You knew they were going to send him as soon as the ball left the bat," Maile said. “It is like we do in spring training. We know he’s coming home. It’s going to be close.”
De La Cruz's throw was measured at 99.8 mph, the fastest in the major leagues on an infielder's assist since Statcast started tracking in 2015. The previous high was a 97.9 mph throw by De La Cruz on July 16.
99.8 MPH on that relay throw from @ellylacocoa18... pic.twitter.com/qmTEUCF5Yd
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 20, 2023
Abbott retired his next 12 batters.
“It impresses all of us. I don’t think it impresses himself,” Reds manager David Bell said. "I think ever since the first day he came here, he knew what he was capable of. He expects it of himself. He respects the league. He respects the difficulty of what he has to do, but at the same time he pitches with great confidence.”
Flores hit a ninth-inning homer off Derek Law.
Cincinnati got consecutive victories for the first time since a five-game winning streak from July 2-6. The Giants lost their second straight after a seven-game winning streak.
“We had some really good at-bats,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “We hit some deep fly balls and we were swinging at strikes. In the short-term, we didn’t get the results. We had better at bats than the results showed.”
Maile had three hits. Jake Fraley, Jonathan India and Will Benson each added two hits for the Reds (52-46), who are 2 1/2 games behind first-place Milwaukee in the NL Central.
The Giants (54-43) remain tied with Arizona for second in the NL West, two games behind the Dodgers.
All-Star right-hander Alex Cobb gave up five runs, a season-high nine hits and four walks in 4 1/3 innings of what he called a “clunker.”
Maile hit a two-run homer in the third on a slider, Christian Encarnacion-Strand had an RBI single in the fourth and scored on Benson's double, and India had a run-scoring single in the fifth.
FLORES
Flores was 7 for 16 in the series with two doubles, three homers and seven RBIs. He is 20 for 44 (.455) in his last 13 games.
UP NEXT
Giants: LHP Alex Wood (4-3. 4.53) starts Friday's series opener at Washington and RHP Jake Irvin (2-5, 4.96).
Reds: RHP Ben Lively (4-5 3.72) is scheduled to start Friday’s opener of a three-game series against Arizona and LHP Tommy Henry (5-2, 3.89).
