Nunez falls just short of cycle as Giants top Strasburg, Nationals
SUNDAY’S GAME Giants (Madison Bumgarner, 10-6) at Washington (Tanner Roark, 11-6 ), 10:35 a.m. CSNBA, TBS
WASHINGTON — History repeats itself. That includes baseball history. And there was something so very familiar about the Giants’ 7-1 victory over Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals on Saturday.
Six Julys ago, first baseman and sarcasm artist Aubrey Huff took stock of a Giants team that had lost seven consecutive games, struggling to score in all of them, and then considered the next day’s starting pitcher: the Rockies’ Ubaldo Jimenez, who was 14-1 with a 1.83 ERA.
“I’ve seen some crazy things happen in this game when you’re down and out,” Huff said. “This may be the exact guy we need to get out of it.”
Huff’s special brand of crazy turned out to be 100 percent accurate. The Giants hung seven runs on Jimenez and won 11-8, and thus began the turnaround that would carry a fourthplace club to the first World Series title in San Francisco-era history.
It would be foolish to declare the Giants’ destiny based on one Saturday night along the Anacostia River. But the parallels were remarkable to that critical spot in the 2010 season. The Giants’ misfiring lineup limped into Nationals Park and knocked out Strasburg, a pitcher who was 15-1 with a 2.63 ERA.
And this time, they won’t have to climb out of fourth place. The Giants (63-47) already lead the N.L. West.
Matt Cain validated the coaching staff’s decision to keep him in the rotation over Jake Peavy, Eduardo Núñez had the breakout night that might allow him to settle in with his new club, Hunter Pence took a foul ball to the face and kept playing with a black eye that almost required a cut man, and the Giants toppled an ace who held batters to a .127 average in July while winning N.L. Pitcher of the Month honors.
“All around, we had a really good night tonight,” said Brandon Belt, who hit two doubles and a homer in his return to the No.3 spot. “We had guys picking each other up, hits falling in. That’s just something we haven’t seen in the last two weeks.
“We’re good though, When we get this thing on track, it’s gonna be purty.”
Núñez missed hitting for the cycle by the length of a Louisville Slugger, but his night included another special accomplishment: He joined Will Clark as the only Giants in the San Francisco era to hit two triples and a double in the same game. The Thrill did it in 1991. The last Giants player before him was Bobby Thomson, in 1957.
Of course, Willie Mays also did it twice before the Giants moved west. And Núñez, with his helmet becoming unmoored each time he flew around the basepaths, conjured a fair image of the Say Hey Kid. He doubled in the first inning, tripled on a ball that struck the top of the center field wall in the fourth and tripled again in the fifth before adding a single in the seventh.
Núñez laughed when asked if he’s having trouble finding a helmet that fits him. “It’s the right size, 7¼,” he said. “I think I move my head too much when I run.”
His head is in a better place now. He acknowledged it was rough on his psyche when he struggled at the plate and made a pair of errors at Philadelphia, and he credited Bruce Bochy for calling him into the manager’s office to provide reassurance. “After that game, I know I have my confidence back,” Núñez said.
Núñez is 6 for 7 against Strasburg this season, but Bochy said he wasn’t playing matchups by keeping his third baseman in the lineup.
“You’ve got to stay behind these guys,” Bochy said. “He’s an exciting player.”
The Giants knocked out Strasburg on Brandon Crawford’s sacrifice fly in the fifth inning. Cain (4-6) only lasted one out longer than his mound counterpart, departing after Wilson Ramos singled to start the sixth.
But Cain thoroughly outpitched one of the game’s best. He used his flinty squint and precision stuff to hold the Nationals scoreless despite five hits and three walks.
In his last two starts, both against the first-place Nationals, Cain has shut them out while allowing three hits in 10 innings.
“They just saw him, and that makes it even more impressive,” Bochy said. “I thought he had better stuff tonight.”
Cain also struck out Bryce Harper three times. The reigning N.L. MVP grimaced during his last at-bat and left the game in the seventh because of neck stiffness; he’s questionable to play in the series finale against left-hander Madison Bumgarner.
The Giants were fortunate when Pence appeared to avoid serious injury in the second inning despite fouling a ball off his face.
He lunged for an outside pitch, and the ball tapped off the plate before it caught him like a sucker punch between his right eye and cheekbone. His face immediately swelled up, seam marks were visible where he was struck and he had a purple shiner by the middle innings. But he finished the at-bat and remained in the game.