Giants on Wrong Side of Historic Triple Play, Fall Short Yet Again

The San Francisco Giants have found a lot of different ways over the past two weeks, but last night's loss was, by light years, a new low for the struggling squad.

San Francisco found themselves on the wrong part of history yet again, wasting a golden bases-loaded no-out opportunity by falling victim to the first 3-3-5 triple play in baseball, all but ending what, in the swing of a bat, became an embarrassing 4-1 loss.

Trailing by three entering the bottom of the eighth, the Giants mounted a rally as Denard Span bunted his way on board, Ángel Pagán singled, and Buster Posey walked, loading the bases for the meat and potatoes of San Francisco's lineup.

Former Giants manager Dusty Baker made a trio of substitutions following the Posey walk, bringing in Sammy Solis to replace Blake Treinen, as well as Ryan Zimmerman to play first and Danny Espinosa to play short.

Brandon Crawford stepped to the plate with the chance to not only erase the woes of the previous seven innings, but of the torturous games which have occurred over the past two weeks.

A comeback in the late innings at AT&T Park would have gotten the place jumping while providing the spark the Giants so desperately needed to finally get off the schneid.

Crawford, in retrospect, did everything in his power to bring a run home, roping a screamer of a line drive towards right field.

While the ball was hit hard, it landed right in the glove of Zimmerman, who was in the right place at the right time to snag the potential base hit.

Lining out wouldn't have been so bad, if not for the fact that Posey and Span forgot the simplest of base running rules, which was to freeze on a line drive.

Posey took a couple of hard steps towards second, but by the time he realized Zimmerman snagged the ball, it was too late, and all the first baseman had to do was lightly jog towards the bag and step on the base to double up the San Francisco catcher.

Span, on the other hand, took off for home on the crack of the bat, most likely believing that Crawford's liner had hit the ground, and Zimmerman played it on the hop.

By the time Zimmerman tagged first base, Span already crossed the plate, so all the National had to do was lightly toss the ball over to third base for Anthony Rendon to catch without much of a worry, then step on the base to complete the triple play.

The triple play didn't end the game, as the Giants still had three outs to work with and potentially comeback, but all the energy in the ballpark seemingly evaporated.

San Francisco's eight-inning rally was the closest they came to putting up a crooked number, as the Giants ran into the buzzsaw that is Max Scherzer.

Gregor Blanco got the Giants off to an early 1-0 lead in the second inning with a RBI single which knocked in Conor Gillaspie, but that single was the only offense the orange and black produced both off of Scherzer and for the rest of the game.

San Francisco had an opportunity to add on in the following inning when Span singled and Pagán doubled, putting runners on second and third with only one out, but couldn't capitalize as Joe Panik popped out and Crawford grounded out to first.

Other than those two innings, the Giants weren't able to mount much of a rally against the Washington starter, as Scherzer was adept at killing rallies before they started.

The former Cy Young Award winner ended the day with six strikeouts over seven innings, on route to picking up his 11th win of the season.

Scherzer's opposition on the mound, Jeff Samardzija, fell off the wagon after three solid innings of work, allowing his four total runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings to eventually take his seventh loss of the season.

The Shark was sharp through the first three innings, allowing only two baserunners, without much hard contact against Washington.

After retiring the first batter of the fourth, Wilson Ramos doubled, then Jayson Werth out-battled Samardzija in a nine-pitch at-bat to drive in Ramos on a single to right field, tying the game up at one apiece.

The Nationals struck for two in the fifth by way of a Ben Revere RBI single and a Daniel Murphy RBI triple, then tacked on one more in the sixth with a Rendon RBI double.

Summertime months haven't been kind to Samardzija, as in ten starts in June and July, the Notre Dame product only has three quality starts, as well as four starts allowing five or more runs.

Last night's start was also only the third in which he did not allow a home run in those ten starts.

The bullpen held down the fort following Samardzija's exit, keeping Washington scoreless in three combined innings of work.

Derek Law, who leads the bullpen with a 2.37 ERA and 1.90 FIP, struck out two in his one inning of work.

Eduardo Nunez made his San Francisco debut in the ninth, registering the final out of the ballgame by striking out on a 3-2 foul tip.

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