By Jeremy Kahn

AP photo: Washington Nationals Wilmer Difo turns the double play on the San Francisco Giants Joe Panik’s ground ball the Giants Angel Pagan is out sliding at second base in the first inning at AT&T Park on Friday night

SAN FRANCISCO-It seems lately that the later that Jeff Samardzjia goes in a game, the opposing team figures him out.

Ben Revere singled in Wilmer Difo in the top of the fifth inning, helping the Washington Nationals defeat the San Francisco Giants 4-1 before a crowd of 41,959, the 459th consecutive regular season sellout at AT&T Park, but the play of the night came in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Nationals reliever Sammy Solis will probably never forget in his career.Solis came on to replace Blake Treinen in the bottom of the eighth, and Solis promptly entered Nationals and major league history.

Brandon Crawford hit into a triple play that ended the inning for the Giants, as he lined out to Ryan Zimmerman for the first out, tagged first to get Posey for the second out and threw to Rendon to get Span for the third out of the inning.

It was the first triple play in Nationals history since moving to Washington from Montreal, where they played as the Expos from 1969-2004.

This was the first L3-3-5 triple play in major league history (back to 1876), this according to Bill Arnold of the Sports Features Group and Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

Difo picked up his first hit of the season, as he doubled to leadoff the inning. Difo was called up on Wednesday after Nationals second baseman Stephen Drew was placed on the disabled list, retroactive to Sunday with Vertigo-like symptoms.

Just two batters later, Revere scored when Daniel Murphy hit a triple out near the 421′ mark in right-center field.

That was enough for Max Scherzer, who went seven innings, allowing just one run on five hits, while walking two and striking out seven on his way to his 11th win of the season.

Samardzjia went six innings, allowing four runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out two, as he lost for his third straight start. Samardzjia last won on July 8, as he defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks.

With the two strikeouts on the evening, Samardzjia became the 45th active pitcher to strikeouts in his career.

The Giants got to Scherzer in the bottom of the second inning, as Conor Gillaspie doubled with two outs and then Gregor Blanco singled in Gillaspie.

Matt Reynolds made his Giants debut in the top of the seventh inning, as he replaced Samardzjia. Reynolds signed a minor league deal with the Giants on June 24, after he was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 29.

Reynolds pitched a combined 10.1 innings for both the Richmond Flying Squirrels and the Sacramento Rivercats, as he did not allow a run in either stop. Reynolds pitched in 13 games.

In 0.2 innings of work, Reynolds walked a batter and threw a wild pitch before being replaced by Hunter Strickland.

The Giants are Reynolds’ third major league team, as he pitched for the Colorado Rockies from 2010-2012, and then the Diamondbacks in 2013 and 2015.

Rendon added to the Nationals lead in the top of the sixth inning, as he singled in Jayson Werth, who led off the inning with a double off of Samardzjia.

Denard Span went 2-for-4 against his former team, including an infield single leading off the bottom of the eighth inning that he saw him trip over first base; however Span stayed in the game.

After Span’s infield single to leadoff the inning, Angel Pagan picked up his second hit of the night, a blooper that landed just in front of Werth in left field. That was enough for Oliver Perez, who gave up the back-to-back singles, as he was replaced by Treinen, who promptly walked pinch hitter Buster Posey after he got ahead of Posey 0-2 to load the bases.

That was it for Treinen, as he faced just one batter before being replaced by Solis.

NOTES: Aaron Rowand hit into the last triple play for the Giants on September 6, 2009 against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. It was the eighth triple play hit into by the Giants since they moved to San Francisco in 1958.

Werth extended his on-base streak to a career-high 32 games, tying Dustin Pedoria of the Boston Red Sox for the longest streak in the majors this season.

In the first two games of the series, the Giants are 1-for-15 with Runners In Scoring Position, a lowly .067 average.

Reynaldo Lopez will take the mound for the Nationals, while Jake Peavy will take the ball for the Giants.