Terry Francona’s first opening day as manager of the Cincinnati Reds started in a dentist’s chair.
About 12 hours later, Francona experienced a tough moment in baseball.
The Reds were one out away from a successful debut for Francona, but the San Francisco Giants came back and scored four runs in the ninth inning. Cincinnati scored one run in the bottom of the ninth but lost 6-4.
Francona began the day with an emergency trip to the dentist to fix a broken veneer on a bottom tooth. As usual, Francona made light of the situation.
“Got it fixed and now I’m ready to go. I didn’t want to go through opening day looking like Jethro Bodine,” he said before the game.
That wasn’t the only rough part of the day for Francona. He had to watch his team lose a lead in the ninth inning.
The Reds were up 3-2 going into the ninth inning when Francona chose Ian Gibaut to close the game after Emilio Pagán pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Cincinnati’s closer role is uncertain, with Alexis Díaz on the injured list due to left hamstring inflammation.
With runners at the corners and two outs, Patrick Bailey’s base hit to right-center tied the game at 3-all. Then Wilmer Flores hit a breaking ball into the left-field stands to give the Giants the lead.
“He left a breaking ball that caught too much of the plate. It was the middle of the order and he had a lot of deep counts,” Francona said about Gibaut.
The decision to go with Gibaut, who has 10 blown saves and only four career saves, made Reds fans second-guess Francona’s choice.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to go check to see who’s surprised,” Francona said about reactions to his decisions. “What I do is do what I think is right, answer questions and be confident enough to move on and not run to see how I’m being perceived. I’ll never do that.
“I think it’s OK to kind of know who you are. We can’t be the team where we throw the bats and balls out there and think we’re going to win. We’re going to have to scrap our (butts) off. That’s OK. I can enjoy that.”
The ninth-inning collapse took away from what had been a good day for the Reds. Jeimer Candelario had two hits and drove in three runs.
Terry Francona greets players and staff before an opening day gameCincinnati pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts
It was the second-most the Reds have had on opening day, with a record 17 against the Los Angeles Angels in 2013.
Starter Hunter Greene, who allowed two runs and struck out eight in five innings, defended Gibaut and went to his locker to speak with him before doing his postgame interview.
“He’s one of our best pitchers. Fans might not want to hear it. But they need to believe it because it is true,” Greene said. “I want him to know that I support him and I look past what happened today. And I know the rest of the team feels that way about Ian as well.”
As he had in previous managerial jobs with Philadelphia, Boston, and Cleveland, Francona reminded everyone that what happens on opening day doesn’t always predict the rest of the season.
“It better not deflate us too much. It’s no fun losing any way. Losing late is hard. If that is too much for us, I got the wrong read on our guys,” Francona said. “I get more excited to get into the grind of the season. The bad thing is tomorrow we have a day off where we sit through it.”
Francona is back managing after taking last year off, but that didn’t make this opening day feel different from the others. On last year’s opening day, Francona was in Los Angeles watching Arizona in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“I think every day is special. I mean, it can be June 30th. I like coming to the ballpark. I was glad I didn’t last year because I needed to get away. Like I told these guys, when you know you need to get away, you’re probably late doing it. But it helped me along the way.”
