SAN FRANCISCO -- Because of injuries that carried over from the spring and a COVID-19 outbreak in the clubhouse this week, the Giants sent out a lineup Friday night that included just two players -- Brandon Crawford and Joey Bart -- who would normally start for Gabe Kapler against most right-handed pitchers.
That group did have good mojo on its side, though.
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The Giants wore their City Connect jerseys, which they had been 10-1 in. They also had Alex Wood on the mound, and they're 12-1 the last two years when Wood takes the ball after the team has lost the previous game.
The streaks were no match for the Washington Nationals.
After getting swept at home last weekend, the Nationals came into Oracle Park and crushed the Giants 14-4. The 14 runs were the most allowed by Giants pitchers since last August and the 22 hits were the most since 2014.
The Giants had a chance to try and come back when it was a six-run game in the sixth and the first two batters reached on singles. Unfortunately, that's when the crowd of 38,000 decided to bust out both The Wave and Rally Lights. The combination was simply too much, and two strikeouts and a flyout ended the threat.
There was one big positive at the plate, though. Joey Bart came into the night in an 0-for-20 slump but hit a 111.2 mph rocket in the seventh that cleared the left field wall for Bart's third homer of the year.
Bart's shot was the hardest-hit Giants homer since Alex Dickerson's 112.9 mph blast on July 5, 2019.
Not At His Best
San Francisco Giants
After his start at Nationals Park last weekend, Wood said this is about as good as he has felt on a big league mound. The vibes didn't make the trip back to the West Coast.
Wood gave up a solo homer to Juan Soto, which is certainly no crime, but he couldn't stop the bleeding in the second and third. The Nationals scored a pair of runs in each inning and ended up scoring five runs on eight hits in Wood's five innings. Wood had allowed just four total runs in his first three starts. He had allowed more than seven hits just twice in 29 previous appearances for the Giants.
Long-Awaited Debut
Jason Krizan waited 1,132 minor league games to finally get in a big league lineup. He played left field for the Giants on Friday and batted sixth, with the No. 56 on his back.
Krizan was 0-for-3 with a walk. He grounded out to second his first time up and to the mound his next time. Krizan came up in the sixth with two on and one out, but struck out swinging. In the eighth, he drew a walk and got a nice round of applause from the fans in the lower deck.
Recruiting Szn
It's likely that at some point in the next three years, the Giants and Soto get mixed together for a juicy rumor. The Nationals haven't gained much traction in trying to lock up Soto, possibly the most talented hitter in the world, and the Giants have kicked the tires on several recent young and available superstars, including Bryce Harper and Francisco Lindor. He is, in every way, their ideal hitter.
Will it actually happen? Almost certainly not, but the rumors will be fun, and Soto certainly looked comfortable at Oracle Park. His blast in the first was 109 mph off the bat and went 409 feet to dead center. The homer was Soto's first in seven career games here, and he later came very close to adding a second.
With two on in the sixth, Soto hit a 111.7 mph shot off the facing of the arcade in right field. It would have been a homer in 19 parks, but Soto ended up with an RBI single. That's one the Giants will keep out of their video presentation if they ever get a chance to woo the 23-year-old.