San Francisco, CA – Tim Lincecum was coming off his first career no-hitter, but the Cincinnati Reds made it seem like a distant memory.
The Reds clubbed three home runs off Lincecum and Todd Frazier opened the flood gates with a three-run double in the first inning, as Cincinnati pasted the San Francisco Giants in an 11-0 victory Monday at AT&T Park.
Devin Mesoraco and Shin-Soo Choo each hit one out of the park in the second, while Jay Bruce added his 20th homer of the season the following inning to send the Reds to their fourth win in five games.
The Reds totaled 17 hits for the game while Bronson Arroyo (9-7) scattered just seven over an impressive complete-game effort. Its his first such outing of the year and the right-hander improved to 7-0 in his last 10 starts against NL opponents.
Lincecum (5-10) gave up eight runs in all on nine hits, lasting just 3 2/3 innings. Needless to say, he looked far removed from the 148-pitch brilliant performance at San Diego just nine days ago, in which he tossed the second no- hitter of the MLB season.
"He left some pitches out," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy about Lincecum. "Give them credit, they swung the bat. Its a tough start for him."
Lincecum was off to a shaky start, but looked like he might escape first inning trouble after catching Brandon Phillips in a run down toward home to get the second out. However, he then walked Bruce and served up a bases-loaded double to Frazier, and the Giants found themselves in a 3-0 hole.
Mesoraco and Choo homered two at-bats apart, each providing solo shots for a five-run spread in the second. Bruce got in on the action in the third by blasting a one-out shot to right-center to make it 6-0 Cincinnati.
The Reds actually scored in each of the first seven innings, with Phillips knocking a two-run double in fourth and Mesoraco and Bruce supplying one RBI apiece to the fifth and sixth frames, respectively.
Xavier Paul then doubled home Mesoraco in the seventh to account for the final margin.
Derrick Robinson, who went 3-for-5 and scored three runs, kept Arroyo's shutout in tact by robbing a Jeff Francouer home run on the last pitch of the game.
Game Notes
The two teams will play a double-header on Tuesday, with the Giants' Barry Zito squaring off against Cincinnati's Greg Reynolds in the early game and Eric Surkamp taking on Tony Cingrani in the night-cap ... Choo extended his hitting streak to 16 games ... Bruce recorded his sixth straight season of at least 20 home runs ... None of the hitters for the Giants had more than one hit.
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