In Barack Obama's tenure as President of the United States, one team which has had the opportunity of paying a visit to the man in charge on multiple occasions has been none other than the San Francisco Giants.
San Francisco didn't fly into Washington D.C. with a visit to the White House on the itinerary, but rather looking to get back on track after dropping two of three to the Philadelphia Phillies.
In the first of their last three regular games in the Nation's Capitol during the Obama tenure, the POTUS would not have been able to recognize the three-time World Series champions.
One calendar week after Washington taxed Jeff Samardzija for four runs, the Nationals once again beat up on the Giants on both sides of the ball, hitting a pair of home runs and sacrifice flies to tax him for five runs off the San Francisco starter while Gio Gonzalez stifled the offense.
The Giants struggles on the road have continued, as the team has now lost its tenth of twelve road games in the second half.
Samardzija, like teammate Matt Moore the day prior, struggled with control, yet he was not able to keep runners from crossing the plate as proficiently as the newly-acquired lefty.
The Notre Dame product was visibly angry on the mound due in part to his inability to consistently hit the strike zone.
A good amount of pitches were close to the strike zone but weren't called in his favors, which contributed to the frustration.
Not even the outs came easy for Samardzija, as a couple were either caught at the warning track or hit very hard.
Samardzija has tried changing up his delivery, but to no avail, as he is still missing the strike zone or putting balls right over the heart of the plate.
While Samardzija struggled to get through innings, Gonzalez excelled, getting his revenge after picking up a loss in his last start against the orange and black.
The lefty twirled a gem against San Francisco, which included the introduction of a biting changeup that the Giants weren't expecting, cutting up the Giants all night.
Gonzalez was in the stretch only twice the entire night, and did not allow runner past second base after the fourth inning.
Manager Bruce Bochy tried shaking up the lineup by moving Eduardo Núnez into the three-hole and re-inserting Buster Posey into the lineup after a day off in the series finale against Philadelphia, but the offense still found itself running in place.
The only source of offense came by way of a Ángel Pagán solo home run in the fourth inning.
Bochy may have outmanaged himself in the bottom of the first, opting to utilize a shift with Bryce Harper at the plate instead of playing at the traditional double play depth.
After Jayson Werth singled, Harper tapped a ground ball to Brandon Crawford's right and what would have been an ordinary double play ball turned into the shortstop having to dive, then throw off-balance while twisting to Ehire Adrianza at second.
The Gold Glover's throw handcuffed Adrianza and squirted away just far enough from the second baseman for Werth to advance to third, putting runners on first and third with no outs.
Official scorekeepers charged Crawford with an error, his fifth of the second half after only totaling five during the entire first half of baseball.
Crawford's error set the table for the Nationals, as the white-hot Daniel Murphy singled, driving in Werth and advancing Harper to third.
The following batter, Wilson Ramos, drove in last season's MVP with a sacrifice fly to right, too deep for the strong arm of Hunter Pence to have a chance of throwing Harper out at the plate.
Samardzija was the recipient of tough luck in the bottom of the third when Trea Turner turned a soft, lazy blooper just a tad too far for the hustling Pence into a double.
Werth advanced Turner to third on a fly out to right and Harper kept Pence busy with another fly out, driving in Turner and extending Washington's lead to three.
While the Nationals were making noise on the offensive front, the Giants weren't able to do much of the same with a locked in Gonzalez on the mound.
The lefty faced the minimum through ten batters, including a pickoff of Núñez in the top of the first inning following a two-out walk.
Pagán gave the San Francisco offense a bit of life in the third inning, putting the Giants in both the hit and run column with a home run on a 2-2 fastball from Gonzalez.
The left fielder's home run was his eighth of the season, tying the most he has hit in a season in a Giants uniform. Pagán's career-high is 11 and is currently on pace to hit 12.
Pagán's dinger cut Washington's lead to two, but the National's responded with a jab of their own in the following inning when Turner flashed his power, turning a 1-1 fastball right down the middle into his second home run of the season.
Wilson Ramos added onto the lead, knocking a solo shot of his own out of the park in the bottom of the sixth to extend the Nationals' lead to 5-1.
The second half hasn't helped Samardzija escape his home run woes, having given up two home runs in three of his four starts.
The Shark has now allowed 21 home runs through 2/3rds of the season, a year after allowing a league-high 29 with the Chicago White Sox.
Earlier in the year, Samardzija would bring up his left leg and exaggerate his turn, similar to Johnny Cueto, but now he doesn't make as large a spin.
The change is in response to his struggles post-June but has yet to make a positive impact on his game.
In his first eleven starts of the season, Samardzija had a 2.84 ERA while only giving up five home runs, but in his last eleven, he has a 7.36 ERA while giving up 16 home runs.
When the offense struggles like it did tonight, Samardzija needs to be the pitcher who steps up his game accordingly and keeps the ballgame in striking distance.
At the moment, Samardzija is not that man, and is certainly pitching like the $90M the Giants paid him this past offseason.
The acquistion of Moore may take some off the pressure off of Samardzija to produce, but the Giants will need The Shark to find his bite come October if they want to stand a chance against playoff caliber teams like the Nationals.
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