San Francisco Giants quarterback Hunter Pence said he felt “terrible” that his defensive tackle in Saturday’s 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers removed teammate Johnny Cueto’s bid for a no-hitter.
Cueto was dominant for most of the night and led a no-hitter in the sixth inning, when Enrique Hernandez took the lead by blowing a ball to airfield for what appeared to be a routine.
Pence, playing in left, lost track of the ball in the Dodger Stadium twilight, and it slipped over his head as Hernandez coasted to third base for the first hit of the night for the Dodgers.
“Johnny had the magic and everything worked,” Pence said. “Digging feels absolutely awful. He deserves better.”
Cueto then appeared to unravel, and the Dodgers scored four runs in the inning to get inside a run. His biggest mistake was a hanging curved ball to Justin Turner which resulted in a homer with three runs. That was his last pitch of the night.
Before the sixth, Cueto (1-0) had only allowed a third walk to Chris Taylor. He went 5⅔ innings, marking his second straight outing where he has gone at least five innings. The right-hander allowed four runs on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
“By five innings, Cueto could have ruled everyone out, in my opinion,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The game kept us in balance, and everything lay on our heads. We did not hit a ball hard outside Justin’s homer all night.”
Cueto developed a blister on his right big toe and said it started plucking him in the fourth inning. Manager Gabe Kapler and a coach came to check on him in the sixth, but Cueto remained in the game.
“All my pitches worked fine, and I felt comfortable,” said Cueto, who was the eighth pitcher born in the Dominican Republic to make 300 starts. ” I think the most frustrating thing was the ball that got lost. If that gets caught, the game changes and maybe I’s knocked out of the inning. I don’t throw a lot of places. It’s hard to tell how far I could go. “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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