Giants starter Kevin Gausman tipped his cap to the Nationals in their approach to him, causing him to lose for the first time this season and explained how his early trouble could have impacted the rest of the team.
The Giants arrived in Washington D.C. two days ago with one of the best offenses in MLB, and until extra innings of the second game of a split doubleheader Saturday, it looked like they might have left a piece of luggage at the airport.
Luckily, with the help of MLB's recent rule addition that puts a runner on second base to start each extra inning, the Giants salvaged a split of the doubleheader with the Nationals, winning the nightcap 2-1 in eight innings.
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SIGN UP HERE But for most of Saturday, it looked like the Giants' offense had gone M.I.A. in D.C.
After scoring just one run in a win over the Washington Nationals on Friday night, the Giants were shut out 2-0 in the first game of the doubleheader Saturday, managing to collect just five hits.
The second game of the doubleheader was looking like much of the same for the Giants, with Mike Yastrzemski's double off the top of the wall in the third inning accounting for their only hit prior to extra innings.
After both teams failed to score through seven innings, the Giants finally broke the seal when LaMonte Wade Jr. singled home Curt Casali, who started the frame on second base. Following a fielder's choice that allowed Donovan Solano to reach and a walk to Brandon Belt to load the bases, Wilmer Flores drove in Wade Jr. with a single to left.
Caleb Barager gave up one run in the bottom of the eighth and was on the verge of blowing it, but a baserunning blunder by Victor Robles helped the left-handed reliever escape the jam and preserve the win for the Giants.
San Francisco entered Saturday's doubleheader averaging 4.79 runs per game, the ninth most in all of baseball. They had the second-most homers (91), but added no longballs during the twin-bill.
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In total, the Giants have scored a grand total of three runs in three games in D.C., and amazingly have managed to win two of those games.
Manager Gabe Kapler told reporters after Saturday night's win that his team still has work to do on offense.
"I'm not going to dispute that we're not having our best at-bats right now on the offensive side of the ball," Kapler said on a video conference call. "Today wasn't the prettiest win ever. It's hard to win in the big leagues, so it's nice to get that W, and at the same time, I think we've got some work to do on the offensive side. But what I'd say is, every team goes through this, periods of struggles, good hitters not having their best at-bats. I do think we strung a few together there at the end, or closer to the end of the game. But we're better than how we've performed so far in this series from an offensive standpoint and we'll come back tomorrow ready to fight."
They'll get one more chance to fix things against the Nationals on Sunday before flying home for a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, owners of the worst record in baseball (20-45).
