Nationals rout Giants, 10-1, behind a rare offensive outburst
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The dam broke in the second inning. No matter which pitch the San Francisco Giants’ Logan Webb threw or whatever else he tried to halt the Washington Nationals’ onslaught, the hits and runs kept flowing Saturday night at Nationals Park. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Thanks to contributions from the entire lineup — from leadoff man CJ Abrams to No. 9 hitter Alex Call and everyone in between — the Nationals scored six times in the inning before adding four more runs in the fourth. Those early outbursts let Washington cruise to a 10-1 victory, its second win in a row.
After a 10-pitch first inning didn’t require Webb to sweat much, the Nationals made him work in the second. By the time he exited after just one out, he had thrown 51 pitches on the night.
A nine-pitch at-bat by Joey Meneses ended with a single and started the rally. Keibert Ruiz followed with a 10-pitch at-bat that resulted in a walk. Dominic Smith made Webb throw 10 more pitches; on the last, his RBI single gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead.
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“Logan Webb is a great pitcher,” Smith said. “Getting him a little tired, frustrating him, fouling off pitches, not being easy outs — I think when you extend those at-bats, you eventually get a mistake. And we were able to take advantage of that. You have to do that against those good pitchers like that.”
After Smith put Washington ahead, Corey Dickerson was next with an RBI single. Following a Luis García strikeout, Call brought home two with a triple to make it 4-0. And two pitches later, when Abrams unloaded on a change-up down the middle that just made its way out of the ballpark in right-center for his 10th home run of the season, Call lifted his fists as he jogged down the third base line.
That was the end of the line for Webb; it was the shortest start of the 26-year-old’s major league career. The Nationals (40-58) would cruise from there, handing the contending Giants (54-45) another loss.
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The Nationals have had no trouble putting the ball in play this season, but they have hit for very little power. They’re at their best when they string together singles and find an extra-base hit here or there to put up a crooked number. That’s exactly what happened Saturday night, and it continued in the fourth inning.
García started with a single against reliever Sean Manaea before Call walked. Two batters later, Lane Thomas contributed an RBI double. Jeimer Candelario and Ruiz added an RBI single each before Smith found a hole up the middle for another, this one coming off the bat at just 72.9 mph, to make it 10-1. Manaea bent over in frustration as Nationals fans in the upper levels stood for another run-scoring chant.
All of that support was more than enough for Josiah Gray, who pieced together one of his best outings of the season despite struggling early. Gray threw seven straight balls to open the game, ultimately walking LaMonte Wade Jr. and Joc Pederson. But he struck out J.D. Davis before getting Michael Conforto to ground into an inning-ending double play.
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Gray also walked the first batter he faced in the second, but he again avoided damage. In the third, he allowed a pair of hits before Davis drove in the Giants’ lone run on a sacrifice fly. But Gray made the necessary adjustments, just as Jake Irvin had in a 5-3 win a night earlier.
“Just had to refocus a little bit,” Gray said of starting the game with two walks, “and look at the score ahead and be like, ‘If I give up a hit, if I give up a run, the guys have my back.’ Just pitch my game and get the first out and the first strike. After the first two innings, felt like I did a better job at that.”
Gray lasted seven innings and struck out four, retiring 11 of the final 13 batters he faced. Manager Dave Martinez said before the game that he wanted Gray to establish his fastball, but the right-hander stayed almost entirely away from it. In the end, he threw 23 sliders, 19 curveballs, 17 cutters, nine sinkers, seven change-ups, seven sweepers and just five fastballs as his ERA fell to 3.45.
A few hours before the game, the Nationals welcomed No. 2 draft pick Dylan Crews, the team’s latest building block, to the organization after the outfielder from LSU agreed to a $9 million signing bonus. And then Gray — along with Ruiz, arguably the organization’s first major additions in its rebuild — built on an all-star season while getting offensive support from his young teammates.
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Everyone in the lineup had at least one hit, and Abrams, García and Ruiz had two apiece. Behind the plate, Ruiz helped Gray and the rest of the staff slow the Giants again. Rico Garcia, making his Nationals debut, struck out two in the eighth inning before Joe La Sorsa handled the ninth on just five pitches.
The Nationals didn’t score after the fourth inning, but they didn’t need to. They had thoroughly outplayed the Giants by that point.
“Big day for us,” Martinez said. “The future’s bright; we’re excited about it. Our young guys are playing really well. Veteran guys are keeping us grounded. So just a really good day. It’s been a good weekend so far. So let’s finish up tomorrow by going 1-0.”
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Source: The Washington Post
