Giants’ momentum builds in series-opening triumph
Bullpen delivers as balanced team pounds Nationals
WASHINGTON, D.C. >> As the Warriors sought to clinch the Bay Area’s sixth major professional sports championship of the decade, the franchise that captured the region’s first three attempted to achieve its own important feat with a victory.
For the club that turned even-year titles into a stunning trend, the Giants haven’t won much since the Warriors last lost a championship in the summer of 2016.
But after a 9-5 seriesopening win over the Washington Nationals Friday, the 32-31 Giants are above .500 for the first time since May 15.
“I think we’re just building momentum off what we did this last homestand,” Andrew McCutchen said. “Guys are swinging the bat well, we’re pitching well too. The bullpen has been doing an amazing job. Just carry that momentum into going on the road.”
After a second half freefall in 2016 and a 98-loss season last year, the Giants are playing winning baseball again and were victorious for the seventh time in their last eight games behind an early offensive outburst and a strong performance from a deep bullpen.
“Sure, it’s good to be at this point,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “But you keep going. You keep marching. The guys are doing a nice job of that. Putting the losses behind them, but also these wins. They’re putting those behind them.”
McCutchen opened the scoring for the Giants with a first inning shot off of Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg, who was lifted due to an undisclosed injury after surrendering two more
runs in the second.
McCutchen’s solo blast to left-center field was his third home run in his last five games after the Giants right fielder entered the month of June with three total homers.
“We can’t look at what we’ve done in the past or what we’re trying to do in the future,” McCutchen said. “We’re just going to have to focus on right now and go from there.”
After first baseman Pablo Sandoval led off the second with a double, he scored on an Alen Hanson single to double the Giants lead. Left fielder Hunter Pence followed Hanson with a double to the right-center field gap that drove in the speedy infielder.
Hanson’s two-out, tworun game-tying home run allowed the Giants to come from behind and walkoff against the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday, and he barely missed his sixth home run of the season with a triple off the right field wall Friday. It
didn’t take long for Hanson to score, as center fielder Gorkys Hernández ripped a two-run blast to center for his seventh home run which gave the Giants a 5-0 lead.
The impressive showing from the Giants offense in the early innings aided the cause of rookie starter Andrew Suárez, who tossed seven innings of shutout ball to defeat the Phillies his last time out.
Suárez was likely on the verge of losing his spot in the Giants rotation after allowing three first-inning runs against the Rockies on May 28, but he finished off four more innings in that outing without giving up an earned run. With three scoreless frames to open his start against the Nationals, the left-hander appeared poised to take another big step.
But Suárez ran into trouble in the fourth as 19-yearold Nationals left fielder Juan Soto plopped a tworun homer just over the glove of Pence and into the visiting bullpen beyond the left field fence. After Washington tagged Suárez for three hits, including a two-run single from Bryce Harper in the fifth, Bochy put the game in the hands of his bullpen.
A quintet of relievers finished it off, but the efforts began with rookie Reyes Moronta who escaped the jam Suárez created in the fifth by inducing a pair of outs in the air.
“It’s nice to know we’ve got the lead and with our bullpen, it’s pretty much game over once our bullpen comes in with a lead,” Suárez said.
The Giants’ offense continued to surge in the late innings thanks to RBI hits from Sandoval and Pence and a pinch hit sacrifice fly from Longoria.