CINCINNATI — Terry Francona’s first Opening Day as manager of the Cincinnati Reds started in a dentist’s chair.
About 12 hours later, Francona was experiencing baseball’s equivalent of a root canal.
The Reds were one out away from a successful debut for Francona, until the San Francisco Giants rallied for four runs in the ninth inning. Cincinnati got a run in the home half but ended up falling short 6-4.
Francona began the day with an emergency trip to the dentist for treatment of a broken veneer on a bottom tooth. As is his usual style, Francona tried to make 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 painful experience for Francona. He then had to watch his team squander a lead in the ninth inning.
The Reds had a 3-2 lead heading into the ninth when Francona decided to go with Ian Gibaut to close it out after Emilio Pagán pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Cincinnati’s closer situation remains in flux with Alexis DÃaz on the injured list due to left hamstring inflammation.
With runners at the corners and two out, Patrick Bailey‘s base hit to right-center tied it at 3-all before Wilmer Flores drove a hanging sweeper into the left-field stands to put the Giants on top.
“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 of Gibaut.
The decision to go with Gibaut, who has 10 blown saves and only four career saves after Thursday, had Reds fans instantly second-guessing Francona.
“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 implosion dampened what had been a good day for the Reds. Jeimer Candelario had a pair of hits and drove in three runs.
Cincinnati pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts, the second most the Reds have had on Opening Day, behind a record 17 against the Los Angeles Angels in 2013.
Starter Hunter Greene, who allowed two runs and struck out eight in five innings, also defended Gibaut and went to his locker to talk to him before doing a 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 tried to emphasize that what happens in the opener isn’t always a harbinger of what will take place the entire 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 the past year off, but that didn’t make this Opening Day more special than past ones. During last year’s Opening Day, Francona was in Los Angeles watching Arizona in the men’s NCAA 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.”
