3 key takeaways from the SF Giants series against the Nationals

One week after sweeping the Washington Nationals on the road, the SF Giants dropped two of three games against this same team at home. It is easily the most disappointing series of the season so far, but there were some key takeaways.

3 key takeaways from the SF Giants series against the Nationals

This was the type of series that had the wrong feeling from the start. Before the Giants even had a chance to hit on Friday night, they were already down by one run. Washington kept hitting and they never looked back as the Giants played from behind for much of the series.

Nationals hitters recorded 28 runs on 45 hits in the three-game series against one of the better rotations in baseball. On paper, the Nationals do not have a strong lineup and they got production from some unlikely sources such as Victor Robles and Alcides Escobar.

Every ball they put in play seemingly found a hole. It did not help that the pitching staff struggled to throw strikes and that the Giants' defense had some pretty bad miscues.

1. The Giants rotation struggled to keep runs off of the board

Prior to the start of Friday's game, the Giants had allowed the second-fewest runs in baseball. You would not know it by watching the series against the Nationals.

Alex Wood, Logan Webb, and Alex Cobb combined to yield nine earned runs, 14 runs in total, in three starts this weekend. Webb pitched effectively and gave the Giants a chance to win, so he was certainly the outlier compared to Wood and Cobb.

Wood allowed five earned runs on eight hits, including one home run, in five innings on Friday night. The bullpen did not do any favors as they allowed nine more runs to cross the plate by the end of the game.

The left-handed hurler was not nearly as sharp as Giants fans have seen in the past. While facing off against Juan Soto in the first inning, Wood worked quickly as he typically does. However, Soto tried to slow down his pace by calling for time if the veteran southpaw was working too quickly.

This seemed to frustrate Wood with the at-bat eventually resulting in a home run. Soto is a good hitter, so this is going to happen. However, it felt like the Wood never really got it going after that.

On the other hand, Cobb did not even make it out of the inning in his first start back from the injured list. Cobb managed to induce a ground ball to Nelson Cruz, but Jason Vosler whiffed on the scoop, which turned out to be a critical error.

The righty was not able to regain composure as struggled to throw strikes, walking three batters before being pulled by manager Gabe Kapler. Cobb completed just 0.2 innings on Sunday, so the bullpen had to handle a heavy workload. Fortunately, the Giants had a day off on Monday.

3 key takeaways from the SF Giants series against the Nationals

2. Joey Bart's bat is beginning to heat up

Joey Bart went two full weeks without recording a hit and his overall stats still look strong. That is an impressive feat in and of itself.

On the year, the right-handed bat is slashing .205/.352/.432 (130 OPS+) with three home runs, five RBI, and eight runs in 54 plate appearances. This includes 16.7 percent walk rate against a 44.4 percent strikeout rate.

The good news is that Bart is displaying a more selective approach as he sees 4.33 pitches per plate appearance and has a very strong 26.5 % O-Swing percentage. He is not nearly as aggressive as he was in 2020, but he is still swinging and missing at a high rate.

The former second overall pick quietly had a nice series at the plate, recording three hits in six at-bats with two walks. He blasted a solo shot with an exit velocity of 111.2 MPH on Friday night on an impressive line-drive stroke.