SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Johnny Cueto’s performance Wednesday ideally would have ended with a tip of his cap. Instead, it left the Giants shrugging their shoulders in uncertainty and wringing their hands with anxiety.
Cueto pitched neatly into the sixth inning before exiting with a tight lat muscle, and the Giants finished off the Cincinnati Reds 3-0.
Cueto (2-0) removed himself from the game after fanning Nick Castellanos for the second out in the sixth. The right-hander motioned to the Giants dugout and walked to the clubhouse, accompanied by a member of the training staff.
“I think it was the previous pitch that he felt a little something,” said Giants manager Gabe Kapler, who refused to speculate about Cueto’s status until team doctors examine him. “We all had visions in the dugout about that being another deep-into-the-game Johnny Cueto start.”
Showing no signs of physical duress before his injury occurred, the 35-year-old Cueto surrendered three hits and walked none while striking out four.
Giants catcher Curt Casali, however, sensed that Cueto might not have felt quite right physically.
“He was fighting a little something in the early part of the game,” Casali said. “You never want to see that, especially when he’s cruising like that.”
Cueto had never beaten his former team in three attempts. He made his big league debut with the Reds in 2008 and stayed with them until being traded to Kansas City during the 2015 season. He joined the Giants in 2016.
The win hiked Cueto’s career victory total to 130, breaking a tie with Pedro Astacio for sixth place on the all-time list among Dominican-born pitchers. Cueto trails Bartolo Colon (247), Juan Marichal (243), Pedro Martínez (219), Ervin Santana (149) and Ramón Martínez (135).
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