Tony Vitello ejected early, Giants have historic collapse in 9th to lose to Reds

The San Francisco Giants had a six-run lead against the Cincinnati Reds, 9-3, going into the ninth inning and it looked like they would secure their first three-game sweep this season. You can pretty much guess what happened next.

The Giants, despite being three outs away from a win, lost the game, 10-9, after the Reds shifted the momentum and put together a seven-run inning to close it out in San Francisco. It was the first time in Giants history they blew a six-run lead in the ninth inning.

It was their 11th loss overall when leading in the ninth, according to NBC Sports Bay Area.

How it happened was demoralizing for San Francisco – and the fans that showed up to Oracle Park.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Drew Gilbert nearly hit a grand slam but it hit the brick wall in the outfield near Levi's Landing. Gilbert doubled, but still cleared the bases. Then the ninth happened.

Hector Rodriguez, who already hit a home run in the third inning, added another solo homer to get the ball rolling. It seemed the Reds got hit after hit; batters walked; advanced on wild pitches and a throwing error. Eugenio Suarez hit a grand slam to bring Cincinnati within a score, 9-8.

Jose Trevino tied it on a sac fly as Dane Myers scored. The winning run was scored by Matt McLain after Tyler Stephenson singled to left.

"Don't really have a word for it. It's more than unfortunate, but you know what led up to that was a pretty good effort out of some guys," Giants first-year skipper Tony Vitello told reporters after the game. "You know, with the bat in particular, (we're) playing hard, but we kind of finished how we started the game there on the first pitch of the game, adding more stress to our life than we needed."

It was a tough game and it summarizes what's been a tough season.

Vitello saw the comeback but not from the dugout after he was ejected from the game in the top of the first inning after arguing a ball call he thought should've been a strike.

"The guys next to me were surprised. I mean, I was just kind of in it," Vitello said about his ejection. "Yeah, I mean, thought he swung. So I said I thought he swung."

Vitello had a back-and-forth with umpire Ryan Blakney, arguing a check swing from Suárez.

The Giants manager could be heard on the broadcast repeatedly telling Blakney to "just get it right" before Blakney ejected him from the game, saying "get out of here then."

Vitello then responded with some not-suitable-for-work words for the umpire as he defended his players. Fans could be heard agreeing with Vitello before letting the ump know about it. A transcript from the encounter was provided by social media account Foul Territory.

"The attitude we play with is a reflection of us and need to be hooked up no matter who's pitching. But like I said, we added more stress to that inning than we needed to, so maybe that was a factor. But thought the guy swung," Vitello told reporters after the game. "It's part of my role, to say if that's what I thought, and then you can get into escalation versus de-escalation. But yeah, it was. It's up to you guys. ... I didn't throw two baseballs at anybody. I can tell you that."

Vitello told reporters that the team would put this behind it and get to the next game on Thursday, Aug. 27 against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oracle Park.

"Come back tomorrow and win," Vitello said about coming back from the loss. "Compete against a team that we haven't been very good against all year long. ... If you don't like something or you're frustrated, then turn it into determination."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tony Vitello ejected early, Giants have historic collapse in 9th to lose to Reds