LDN - Sports

Giants salvage series split with Nationals

[August 01, 2016] SAN FRANCISCO -- Two days after watching a triple play work against his team, San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy pulled out the old triple-pitcher play Sunday.

Surprisingly, it worked just as well.

Pitchers Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija came off the bench in Matt Cain's spot in the lineup to tag-team on a key run, helping the Giants salvage a four-game split with the Washington Nationals with a 3-1 victory in the series finale.

The leaders in the National League West and East will meet again for three games next weekend in Washington.

"We needed a couple of wins in a row," Bochy said after the Giants had lost 4-2 and 4-1 decisions to the Nationals on Thursday and Friday. "That's huge for our confidence."

Cain pitched five innings of no-hit ball for his 100th career win as a Giant.

When his pitching was over, he played a role in what turned out to be the difference-making run by simply stepping side.

Ahead just 1-0 and with his starter having already thrown 93 pitches, Bochy elected to pinch hit for Cain in the fifth inning even though he had yet to allow a hit.

The strategy paid dividends when Bumgarner, a .164 hitter entering the at-bat, doubled off the right-field fence off Nationals left-hander Gio Gonzalez.

"I'm glad to see him get his 100th win. That's a special deal," Bumgarner said of Cain. "It's fun just to be a part of it."

Samardzija, a former football star at Notre Dame, took over for Bumgarner as a pinch runner and raced home two outs later when Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon threw away Hunter Pence's ground ball, extending the Giants' lead to 2-0.

"They both want to get into the game," Bochy said of Bumgarner and Samardzija. "Pretty impressive pinch hit, wasn't it?"

Cain, who has seven home runs in his 12-year career, completely understood when he got the news that his day was over from Bochy and Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti.

"The biggest thing was for them to find a way for us to win today," he said. "It's definitely a little bit different to be pinch-hit for by another pitcher. But I tip my cap to him. He's a better hitter than me."

The win was just Cain's seventh in the last three seasons, after he had raced to 93 in his first nine.

"I didn't think it was going to be such a big deal," he admitted of the 100th win. "But then it took three years."

Bryce Harper led off the Washington sixth with a single off Giants reliever George Kontos, ending San Francisco's no-hit bid. He scored two batters later on a double by Rendon, getting the Nationals back within 2-1.

But Kontos stranded the potential tying run in scoring position, and four Giants relievers followed with three innings of hitless, shutout relief, saving Cain's milestone win.

"I can't say enough about the bullpen," Bochy said of his relief crew, which also shut out the Nationals over the final five innings in Saturday's 5-3 win. "We really need that day off (Monday)."

Closer Santiago Casilla hit the first batter he faced in the ninth, Ryan Zimmerman, but then retired the next three for his 24th save.

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Casilla struck out pinch-hitter Daniel Murphy, representing the potential tying run, to end the game.

"We're a different lineup without Murphy," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said of his .350 hitter, who didn't start either weekend game because of a strained hamstring.

Cain (3-6), who has won his last two starts, walked four and struck out five. Barely half the pitches he threw (48 or 93) were strikes.

Gonzalez (6-9) took the loss despite allowing just one earned run in six innings. He gave up six hits and two walks, striking out one.

"Just a couple bumps in the road," Gonzalez said of his defense, which made two errors. "You turn the page. These guys are the best infield in the league."

The Giants opened the scoring in the third thanks in large part to another Nationals error.

Conor Gillaspie led off the inning with a triple, and was still there when Eduardo Nunez drew a one-out walk.

Angel Pagan then hit a potential double-play grounder right at Nationals second baseman Trea Turner, but his backhand flip pulled shortstop Danny Espinosa off the base, allowing Gillaspie to score.

The Giants gave their bullpen an insurance run in the seventh when Pagan singled in Denard Span, who had an inning-opening triple as a pinch-hitter.

"The big key is they got three pinch hits," Baker summed up. "The big double (by Bumgarner) with no outs, the triple by Span, and (Trevor) Brown got a hit (leading off the eighth)."

Buster Posey had two hits for the Giants, who had 10 hitsin the game but stranded 11 baserunners.

Despite the win, the Giants finished July with a losing record, 11-13, their worst month of the season.

Washington (13-12) also had its worst month in July.

The Nationals, who have split the first six results of a nine-game trip, totaled only three hits.

NOTES: Since the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, only three pitchers have been pulled from no-hitters: RHP Mike Krukow in 1983, RHP Tim Lincecum in 2014 and Matt Cain on Sunday. ... Previous Giants pitchers to win 100 games in the West Coast era of the franchise were RHP Juan Marichal (238), RHP Gaylord Perry (134), Lincecum (108), LHP Kirk Rueter (105) and LHP Mike McCormick (104). ... The Giants' two-game winning streak is their first since the All-Star break. ... RHP Mark Melancon, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday, arrived in time to suit up for the game, but didn't see any action in his first game with the Nationals. ... In order to add their new closer to the active roster, the Nationals sent RHP Reynaldo Lopez, who started Saturday's 5-3 loss to the Giants, back to Triple-A Syracuse.

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