Chris Stratton’s career hasn’t exactly followed a fairytale script.
But on Sunday afternoon in Washington, D.C., Stratton authored the most memorable story of his Major League career to date, as the Giants’ rookie tossed 6.2 innings of shutout ball in his team’s XX-XX victory.
Stratton, the Giants’ first round draft choice in 2012, entered Sunday’s start with a career earned run average of 5.59 and a season ERA of 6.63, but instead of succumbing to the muggy, hitter-friendly conditions in the nation’s capital, Stratton spun a gem.
Even though the first two starts of Stratton’s career didn’t go as planned, the third time was the charm for a pitcher who entered his outing with the highest spin rate on his curveball of any pitcher in the big leagues. That curveball is an example of the tantalizing potential Stratton possesses, but for the most part, has failed to harness. On Sunday, though, he harnessed all of it and more as he recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts, besting his previous high mark of four.
Stratton was supposed to get the start for the Giants on Friday evening in game one of the three-game set, but after a near-three hour rain delay, the Nationals and the Giants postponed the contest and rescheduled a split doubleheader on Sunday. It marked the third time in three Major League starts that Stratton dealt with adversity on a day he would pitch for the Giants.
The right-hander’s first career start came back in July when Giants’ right-hander Johnny Cueto was scratched just minutes before his scheduled outing in Detroit with an inner ear infection. Then, when Stratton was inserted into the San Francisco rotation last weekend, his timing was thrown off by a pregame ceremony at AT&T Park that ran long and delayed the start of the game. So on Friday, when rain began to pour 30 minutes before first pitch in Washington, D.C., it couldn’t have taken Stratton and the Giants by surprise.
Instead of pushing his outing back a day, Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy kept Jeff Samardzija on regular rest on Saturday evening, and asked Stratton to take the ball against the Nationals in game one of Sunday’s doubleheader.
Aside from needing Stratton to go deep in the game to preserve the team’s bullpen for the second game of the day, the Giants also needed Stratton to give his team a chance to win, because the Giants are slated to face the National League’s leading Cy Young candidate, Max Scherzer, on Sunday evening.
Stratton received early help from the Giants’ offense, as San Francisco plated three second inning runs to stake out an advantage against Nationals’ right-hander A.J. Cole.
After a one-out double from rookie Ryder Jones and a walk from right fielder Carlos Moncrief, center fielder Gorkys Hernandez singled home Jones to give the Giants a 1-0 lead. Stratton followed Hernandez’s plate appearance with a sacrifice bunt, and second baseman Joe Panik came through with a clutch two-out single to plate a pair of runners and give San Francisco a 3-0 edge.
That lead was all Stratton would need, as he worked his way into the bottom of the seventh before issuing a two-out walk to Jose Lobaton that raised his pitch count to a career-high 109 and forced Bochy to make a move. That move paid off for San Francisco, though, as Josh Osich induced a flyout from pinch hitter Daniel Murphy to end the frame and keep Washington off the board.
The Nationals did battle back in the eighth inning, after a Keby Tomlinson pinch hit sacrifice fly pushed San Francisco’s lead to 4-0.
After Giants’ reliever Hunter Strickland was announced to a long cry of boos from the Nationals’ crowd, Washington third baseman Anthony Rendon clubbed a two-run home run off of Strickland to extend the rude greeting.
However, in the ninth inning, Giants’ closer Sam Dyson shut the door, allowing San Francisco to even the series heading into the rubber match on Sunday evening.