Giants Make Valiant Last Stand in Ninth; Fall 10-9

Things got off to a bad start from the beginning for the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night. Just 10 pitches in Kevin Correia's start, he would have to leave the game with what appeared to be a back injury. The Giants would then bring in Brad Hennessey along with his astronomical ERA to try and eat some innings.

The Reds would strike first off of Hennessey when Brandon Phillips tallied an RBI single; the run was charged to Correia. The Giants wasted no time in the bottom of the first inning, tying the game up when Fred Lewis led off with a triple and was driven home by a Eugenio Velez groundout.

Hennessey would go on to pitch a scoreless second and the Giants would take a 2-1 lead when Hennessey helped his own cause with an RBI single, scoring rookie speedster Emanuel Burriss.

Hennessey would go on to struggle by giving up two more runs in the third inning but then again the Giants answered back to tie in 3-3 after Aaron Rowand's RBI groundout.

Things seemed to fall apart from there.

The Reds would go on to score seven runs in the next four innings with the Giants getting only two of their own. Going into the bottom of the ninth, the Reds held a commanding 10-5 lead, but then things got interesting.

Rookie catcher Steve Holm would lead off with a double, Jose Castillo then followed suit, driving in Holm to cut the lead to four. After a Lewis walk, Velez would continue his great play with a two-run triple, cutting the lead to 10-8.

Now the crowd was into it, fans going wild hoping to see a great comeback, and they almost did. After a Dan Ortmeier groundout, Velez would score, cutting the lead to 10-9, but with no one on base and two outs, the Giants didn't have anything left and they would fall by one run.

Matt Belisle (1-1) got the win for the reds and Francisco Cordero recorded the save (3). Brad Hennessey suffered the loss for the Giants. Fred Lewis would go 3-for-4 with a home run and a triple, just one night after I named him one of the top fantasy sleepers to watch out for.

Today, the Giants and Reds will play the rubber match of the three game series at 1PM PCT. Edison Voloquez (3-0) with face off against Barry Zito (0-5) as Zito looks to find his form.