The Giants lost in their third-straight game, as they fell to the visiting Nationals 6-3. While San Francisco avoided getting out for the second game in a row, Jeff Samardzija had one of his poorest starts of the season, and the bullpen didn’t provide much help.
Samardzija lasted just four inning while throwing 100 pitches yet somehow managed to do that without a single walk. He was only the fourth player in MLB history to achieve such a feat, if it can be called that. The game was rough right from the jump for the “Shark,” when the Nationals scored two runs between a Ryan Zimmerman double that scored Trea Turner, and a single by Brian Murphy that got Zimmerman home. A single by Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez in the second scored Michael Taylor to tack on another run and put the Nationals up 3-0. Samardzija managed to keep the Nationals scoring somewhat in check but 100 pitches in four innings seemed to be just too much for Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy’s liking, causing him to pull Samardzija after four innings of work.
Orlando Calixte, whom the Giants just called up from triple A before the game, had a decent night, going two for five with a hit off the first pitch he saw and a two RBI double in the second. However the Nationals quickly responded with a three-run fifth inning that included Giants’ reliver Bryan Morris walking in a run. That gave the Nationals a 6-2 lead that the Giants never came close to surpassing.
Buster Posey hit an RBI single in the seventh to cut the deficit to 6-3 but it was simply too little, too late for the struggling Giants to mount a comeback.
The Giants will hope to end their losing streak Wednesday, when Matt Cain faces off against the Nationals Matt Scherzer at 7:15 PT.