After Long Delay, San Francisco Giants Lose 3-1 to Nationals

This road trip has gotten off to a stormy start. Kinda funny how it seems fitting the way the season has gone. Nothing has seemed to go right this year for the San Francisco Giants.

It was like the baseball gods didn’t even want to see the San Francisco Giants play. They got this game in. After a three hour and one minute rain delay, the game was finally played. It was only 10:00 pm local time in Washington for first pitch no big deal.

The funny thing about this series is that it really doesn’t mean much for either team. The San Francisco Giants are trying to stay positive but they are looking at last place at the end of the season. While the Washington Nationals are cruising into the playoffs with a controlling 14 game lead in the NL East division.

Regardless, the show must go on. They had to get this game in. No way could you play a triple-header in one day. Although technically that is what is going to end up happening. With the rain out last night, there was already a scheduled double-header for tomorrow. Because this game took so long to start, it ended at 1:18 am Sunday Morning. So does that count as a triple-header?

This delay didn’t help the Giants. They came out flat and didn’t hold much offense in this one. Joe Panik  (7) hit a solo home run in the first inning. That was just about it. A scary moment in the bottom half of the inning, Nationals star Bryce Harper tried to beat out a ground out and slipped on the base and injured what seemed to be his knee. He immediately clutched his leg and was in pain. He had to be helped off the field. The stadium fell silent as most fans were seeing their world series hopes diminish before their eyes. There is currently no update on the status of Bryce Harper’s injury but as the great player he is i hope it is not anything too serious. You never want to see a player get hurt.

Jeff Samardzija was the starter for tonights game and he pitched well after a rough first inning. A couple of hits from Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy led to a quick 2-1 lead for the Nationals in the first. The only other bump in the road for Samardzija was a RBI double form Adam Lind in the sixth to make it 3-1. Due to the double-header Samardzija had to go the distance as much as he could and he did just that surviving six innings on 120 pitches.

Next: Giants Showing Us What Could've Been

Mark Melancon came off the DL tonight and made his first appearance since June 27. He came in for the eighth inning and threw a shutout inning giving a single hit and getting a strikeout.

Today the two teams waited all day to get their game in, tomorrow they will be playing all day. Chris Stratton (0-2 6.63) will go for game 1. While Matt Moore (3-12 5.88) is scheduled for game 2.