SAN FRANCISCO – Back-to-back pitches came to define Drew Smyly’s start against the Giants on Saturday.
Behind in the count, Smyly threw a sinker up and in to Luis González. The left-handed hitter turned on it and sent a towering homer into Levi’s Landing. Smyly threw his next pitch, a cutter, up and in to right-handed hitter Joey Bart. He, too, pulled the ball over the fence.
In the Cubs’ 5-4 loss to the Giants, and Smyly’s last start before the trade deadline, the veteran lefty allowed five runs in four innings.
The Giants were making hard contact from early on, with the exit velocity on Yermín Mercedes’ first-inning single hitting triple digits.