BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER
The Washington Nationals jumped on Alex Cobb for five runs before he could get out of the first inning, smashing their way to an 11–5 win over the Giants Sunday afternoon to take the rubber match of their weekend series at Oracle Park.
Josiah Gray (3-2, 3.12), acquired from the Dodgers in the Max Scherzer trade, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, allowing only one hit thru six to earn the win.
Washington’s Josiah Gray delivers a pitch during the Nationals 11-5 win over the Giants Sunday afternoon. Acquired in the Max Scherzer trade, Gray only allowed one hit in six innings to earn the win.
The Nats jumped out to a 5-0 first inning lead, chasing Giants starter Alex Cobb (1-1, 5.40) after only two outs in his inglorious return from the injured list, the shortest start of his 11-year career.
“There were a lot of poor pitches that I threw that inning,” Cobb said. “It seemed to be kind of a combination of bad luck, really bad pitches and not just executing that one pitch to get out of the inning. There were plenty of opportunities to just make one pitch and not let that unravel the way it did, and I just couldn’t do it.”
“Physically, I felt fine,” Cobb added. “I fatigued pretty quickly halfway through the inning. I thought I was hitting all my checkpoints of driving the ball to a certain location, and it just wouldn’t go there. I ended up walking those three guys. In hindsight, I should have just let them put the ball in play and stop trying to be so fine. I think when things aren’t really going your way, you get subconsciously a little bit afraid of throwing strikes. When you try to make too fine of a pitch, those types of things happen.”
Yadiel Hernandez, who came into the series batting .289, departed with a .340 average after accumulating five hits in eight at bats over the weekend. Hernandez stroked a two-run single in the first and a three-run double in the eighth to give Washington some breathing room after the Giants had scored five runs in the seventh to cut the Nationals lead to 8-5.
Yadiel Hernandez strokes a three-run double in the eighth inning of Washington’s 11-5 win over the Giants Sunday. He added a two-run single in the first to finish with three hits and five RBI’s on the day.
With Gray out of the game, San Francisco roughed up a trio of Nats relievers in the seventh to get back into it. After Luis Gonzalez singled with the bases loaded to get the Giants on the board, a Darin Run walk and Wilmer Flores fielders choice closed the gap to 8-3. Washington’s Steve Cishek finally came on to settle things down, going an inning and a third to get the ball to Tanner Rainey in the ninth, but not before Mike Ford got to him for a two RBI single for his first hit as a Giant.
“He deserved better,” manager Gabe Kapler said of Cobb. “He came out with really good stuff and started by filling up the strike zone. … We also have to catch the ball and convert ground balls into outs. We weren’t able to do that as much as we needed to today to protect both Cobb and other pitchers. I don’t think that’s any secret. We have to play really good defense behind pitchers who get us ground balls. It’s that simple.”
After a day off on Monday to lick their wounds, San Francisco will return to action against the Dodgers on Tuesday night in the first game of a brief two-game series in Los Angeles. Carlos Rodón (3-0, 1.17) is scheduled to oppose Julio Urías (1-1, 2.50) in the opener.
GAME NOTES:
After over 1,000 games and a decade in the minors, 32-year old Jason Krizan got his first Major League hit to break up Josiah Gray’s no-hitter in the fifth inning Sunday.
Washington finished the three game series with 28 runs and 45 hits off of Giants pitching.
