SAN FRANCISCO -- Carlos Rodon's debut for the Giants was spectacular. The rest of Saturday's game was forgettable.
Rodon struck out 12 in just five innings and showed the kind of stuff that earned him a two-year, $44 million contract in the offseason, but the Giants lineup struck out 14 times in a 2-1 loss to the Miami Marlins.
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SIGN UP HERE The Giants won Friday's opener, but they played the type of sloppy baseball in that game that was rarely seen last year. On Saturday, there was more of the same.
The first Marlins run was pushed along by a throwing error and a wild pitch, but the Giants tied it up two innings later when Steven Duggar's double to left brought Thairo Estrada racing home.
The Marlins went back on top in the seventh, though.
Jake McGee entered earlier than he normally has as a Giant and gave up a leadoff double to Brian Anderson. Jesus Sanchez's single to left brought Anderson home without a throw.
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The Giants struck out eight times from the sixth through the eighth, but they briefly rallied in the ninth. Joc Pederson got his first hit as a Giant and Brandon Crawford went ahead 3-0 in the count. Crawford hit into a double play, though, and Wilmer Flores' grounder to the left side ended the game.
The Unprecedented Giant
Since pitch tracking became advanced, the Giants have had just two starting pitchers throw more than three pitches above 98 mph while wearing orange and black. Rodon did it on four of his first eight pitches in his debut.
The offseason's big addition came out throwing absolute gas, striking out Jorge Soler with three fastballs -- 97, 98, 98 -- and then getting Garrett Cooper on a fastball that registered at 98.7. That was the second-hardest pitch of the afternoon for Rodon, who threw 47 four-seamers and averaged 97.4 mph. Rodon immediately became the first Giants left-handed starter to throw a pitch registering 97 mph or above.
Rodon allowed just three hits and one run. In the third, Jon Berti reached on an infield single and went to second on a throwing error. A wild pitch got him to third and he raced home when a slider squirted away from Joey Bart.
More On The New Guy
Rodon joined a very small group, becoming the 10th pitcher in MLB history to strike out 12 while throwing five-or-fewer innings. The Giants had never had a pitcher do it, although they now have two of the 10 on staff. The record is held by Alex Cobb, who struck out 13 Padres in 4 2/3 innings in 2013.
Rodon became just the second Giants starter in the last six seasons to strike out a dozen, joining Kevin Gausman, who did it in eight innings against the Pirates last May. The double-digit strikeout game was the 13th of Rodon's career.
Rodon also tied Juan Marichal for the second-most strikeouts in a pitcher's first game with the Giants. The franchise record is 13 by Cliff Melton in a 1937 game against the Boston Bees.
With that many strikeouts in five innings, you're clearly getting a lot of ugly swings, and Rodon had 24 swinging strikes on his 89 pitches.
Okert's Revenge
Steven Okert made 70 appearances for the Giants over three seasons and at times looked like he would become a consistent left-handed weapon for them. Okert made just seven appearances in 2018 and then spent all of the next season in Triple-A. After the shortened season, he reemerged last year with the Marlins and became one of their best relievers, posting a 2.75 ERA.
Okert came on in the sixth on Saturday and had a flawless performance. He struck out Brandon Belt, Darin Ruf and Pederson before coming back out for the seventh and getting Crawford swinging. Okert needed just 15 pitches to get the four strikeouts, 13 of which were sliders. He got four swinging strikes with his go-to pitch, looking like a pitcher the Giants would love to get back.
