Chris Stratton Dominates in Giants Win Against Nationals

In his third career start, Chris Stratton dominated for 6 2/3 innings to beat to the National League East leading Washington Nationals 4-2.

The San Francisco Giants might be out of the playoff race, but that hasn’t stopped them from playing competitive baseball against the game’s best teams.

Stratton allowed five hits and struck out ten, marking his first major league game with double digit strikeouts.

The Giants scored three runs in the second inning as Gorkys Hernandez and Joe Panik drove the runs in against rookie A.J. Cole. Stratton, a rookie himself, and a former 1st round pick, showed his potential today.

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San Francisco scored an important insurance run in the eighth inning as pinch hitter Kelby Tomlinson hit a sacrifice fly to score Nick Hundley.

The “boo birds” came out in the bottom of the inning, as Hunter Strickland came in to pitch. Nationals fans cheered as Strickland allowed a two run home run to Anthony Rendon, but Strickland escaped the inning and limited the damage.  Strickland made national news earlier in the year when he threw at Nationals slugger Bryce Harper. Harper had homered off of Strickland in the 2014 postseason and it was the first time he had faced him since.

Harper had injured himself in last night’s game and Strickland did not pitch yesterday, so there was no possibility for a rematch in today’s game.

Sam Dyson came into the game in the ninth to earn his ninth save of the season.

The star of the game was clearly Stratton though. The 20th pick in the 2012 draft, Stratton was first called up in 2016, where he earned his first career win against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

His first win of 2017 will certainly help his case to make the 2018 pitching staff. Stratton will have a lot of young pitchers to contend with, but beating the Nationals is a terrific way to leave an impression on the front office, the coaching staff and his fellow teammates.

Next: Giants Showing Us What Might Have Been

This game was originally scheduled for Friday, but was rained out. The second game of today’s doubleheader will begin at 4:05 PST.