Giants going for third in row versus Reds (May 14, 2017)
SAN FRANCISCO -- Two players with a nice history on Mother's Day will duel Sunday when the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants complete a four-game series.
Having won tight games Friday and Saturday, their first back-to-back wins since April 9-10, the Giants will look to win the series against a team that crushed them three straight times in Cincinnati last week.
The Reds will send right-hander Tim Adleman to the mound to face Giants righty Jeff Samardzija.
Both have warts on their 2017 records.
Samardzija is quite familiar with the Reds, having pitched in the same division for many years while with the Chicago Cubs.
He's faced Cincinnati 25 times, including 11 times as a starter, and gone 2-5 with a 4.00 ERA in those games. Samardzija is still looking for his first win this season. He's 0-5, with the five losses equaling the most in the majors.
The veteran got the call for the Giants on Mother's Day last year and pitched well. He limited the Colorado Rockies to two runs in 7 2/3 innings but suffered a 2-0 loss.
Samardzija will have to deal with the King of Mother's Day, Reds first baseman Joey Votto.
Votto will be celebrating the fifth anniversary of arguably the greatest Mother's Day performance in baseball history when he belted three home runs, including a walk-off grand slam, in a 9-6 win over the Washington Nationals in 2012.
Only one other player -- Oakland Athletics left fielder Khris Davis -- has matched that feat on any day of the season. He did it in 2016.
Votto had one hit in Saturday's loss and later popped up to shortstop as the potential tying run in the ninth inning. The Reds stranded 11 runners, including seven in the first three innings.
"The last couple of games, we haven't been able to deliver those big hits," Cincinnati manager Bryan Price lamented after Saturday's loss. "They pitched us tough just like we pitched them tough."
Adleman has yet to win on the road. His lone start away from the Great American Ball Park came in April in St. Louis, where the Cardinals pounded him for six runs (five earned) and eight hits, including two home runs, in just 5 1/3 innings.
Adleman has rebounded well from his only loss, having limited the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees to a total of five runs and 11 hits in 11 innings in a pair of home wins this month.
He has never faced the Giants, who used two solo home runs to ruin an otherwise great performance by Reds right-hander Lisalverto Bonilla in Saturday's 3-1 win.
"I like three-run homers, but you take them," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of the solo shots by Brandon Belt in the first inning and Justin Ruggiano in the second that proved to be the difference in the tight game. "You see what the power does. That was missing, and wasn't missing for the other clubs."
The Reds will be looking to avoid their third three-game losing streak of the season. The Giants have yet to win three straight this year.
