Duggar hurt as S.F. falls again
In a threegame domination of the Giants at Oracle Park, the Nationals illustrated the difference between a post caliber team and a one that merely has a mathematical shot to get there.
Washington did not even need the starters who would go one, two and three in a playoff series. Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg did not pitch. Including their 41 win Wednesday, the Nats held the Giants to four runs over three games behind Erick Fedde, Anibal Sanchez and Joe Ross.
Meanwhile, Giants pitchers could not handle the grind of getting through Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto atop a lineup that also can ding you from below with Kurt Suzuki, Victor Robles and Gerardo Parra.
Parra’s threerun homer off Shaun Anderson all but settled the Giants’ fourth straight loss. They were swept for the first time since late May and have lost nine of their past 13 games. They have an out. Alex Dickerson, the ignition
switch for a revival that now seems ended, has been out with an oblique injury and will not return when eligible to come off the injured list this weekend.
Manager Bruce Bochy said Dickerson’s rehab is going slower than hoped. The left fielder has not swung a bat yet. When he finally gets healthy, he will need minorleague rehab games.
Evan Longoria, who had a molten bat for a spell, is 2for11 since his return from a foot injury that cost him 19 games. Now there’s more. Right fielder Steven Duggar made a brilliant soaring catch to rob Soto of three RBIs and end the fourth inning, but he landed on his surgically repaired left shoulder and sprained it.
He had his arm in a sling postgame and was headed for an MRI exam and the injured list (to be joined, most likely, by Anderson, who has a blister on his middle finger).
“I feel terrible for the kid,” Bochy said of Duggar. “He got over the last time he got hurt and was playing pretty good baseball.”
At least Duggar did not dislocate the shoulder as he did last August, requiring surgery to tighten the joint and repair a torn labrum.
Bochy and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi were to discuss the roster moves later Wednesday. Chris Shaw, who is on the 40man, is a possible callup.
Duggar’s injury only adds to a woeful August for the Giants, who hit a brick wall as soon as the calendar turned.
The players, Bochy and Zaidi all credited Dickerson’s hot start and all the fun the guys had with it for sparking the run toward winning baseball. Dickerson’s absence, plus the Longoria injury, have had an equally deflating effect.
“Obviously, yes,” catcher Stephen Vogt said. “Anytime you lose a middleorder bat, it’s going to be a big hit. It just sort of feels like over this last couple of weeks it’s been some jabs coming at us. Everybody gets them over a season and you can’t make that as an excuse. You have to get through it and play better.
“The other guys, we haven’t stepped up.”
Ross, the Berkeleyborn righthander, took the mound with an 8.10 ERA yet held the Giants scoreless for six innings.
Brandon Crawford’s RBI double off the bricks in rightcenter, with one out in the ninth, allowed the Giants to avert their second shutout in three games.
The Giants’ bullpen nominally kept them in the game after Parra’s homer produced a 40 Nats lead in the third inning, Anderson’s last.
Bochy expects to skip Anderson’s next scheduled turn against the A’s on Tuesday. The Giants are off Monday and could keep the other four starters on turn. That includes Conner Menez, who is listed as Sunday’s starter against the Phillies, who start a fourgame series at Oracle on Thursday night after taking two of three from the Giants in Philadelphia last week.