Giants @ Reds, 5/4

Last night’s game couldn’t have ended any better given the terrible start and so tonight’s game suddenly has a lot more weight behind it. The Giants were primed to do what they always did in Cincinnati — lose terribly, and decisively — but now they’ve caused people to expect something from them.

Dereck Rodríguez lasted just three innings against the Yankees in his last start, the worst start of his career by Bill James’ game score, and tonight he’ll have to try to hold the line against what figures to be a really aggravated Reds team:

The Reds made some transactions before the game, sending down outfielder OF Scott Schnebler and releasing Matt Kemp.

The Giants made moves of their own before the game, though none factor into the starting lineup. Switch pitcher Pat Venditte gets Tyler Beede’s roster spot after the the latter was optioned down following his season debut last night. Meanwhile, Williams Jerez, the pitcher acquired in the Chris Stratton trade right before the season, has followed Venditte to join the team in Cincinnati just in case Yangervis Solarte needs to go on the injured list. He fouled a ball off his foot.

Tanner Roark is 4-1 with a 1.91 ERA in his last five starts against the Giants (6-1 with a 2.59 ERA in his career), pitching seven innings in three of those five; however, he has not pitched more than 5.1 innings in any start this season. Recall that the Reds traded for him from the Nationals this past offseason.

Evan Longoria also has a sore shoulder so he’s a late scratch, meaning the lineup looks like this:

2B — Joe Panik
LF — Mike Gerber
C — Buster Posey
1B — Brandon Belt
3B — Pablo Sandoval
SS — Brandon Crawford
CF — Kevin Pillar
RF — Steven Duggar
SP — Dereck Rodríguez