Last night’s game was a little easier to stomach. Chris Stratton was making his first major league start since July 3, and it wasn’t that surprising that the Giants’ sixth starter had a rough return. That isn’t to say that it wasn’t disappointing. It would have been far, far preferable for Stratton to come out and throw seven innings of one-hit ball, but the actual outcome was expected.
Tonight, the first inning once again proved problematic for the Giants’ starter, but this time it came from an unlikely source. Andrew Suárez had a very uncharacteristic outing in which he couldn’t throw strikes early, and he gave up more than five runs for the first time as a major leaguer.