San Francisco Giants’ Jason Vosler (32) runs the bases past Washington Nationals shortstop Alcides Escobar (3) in bottom of the sixth after hitting a solo shot at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sat Apr 30, 2022 (AP News photo)

Washington. 3. 11. 3

San Francisco. 9. 11. 1

Saturday April 30, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–Friday night’s shellacking of the mighty Giants by the woeful Nationals 14-4 reminded us that there are no foregone conclusions in baseball, especially not in our current covid menaced environment. But one of Farhan Zaida, Gabe Kapler, and Company’s corporate strengths is to play the hand that’s been dealt them.

They did that today by buying Mike Ford’s contract from Seattle, who had DFA’d him five days ago, with an eye to replace the covid listed Brandon Belt with another powerful left handed hitting first baseman.

Ford doesn’t have an impressive lifetime MLB record; his BA is a mere .199. But in his longest stint in the big leagues, he hit .259 in 50 games for the Yankees in 2019, with an outstanding OPS of .909, to which his 12 round trippers made a hefty contribution.

San Francisco’s ace right hander, Logan Webb, brought a 2-1, 2.96 record to the mound when he opened the game by striking out the Nats switch hitting second baseman, César Hernánez on an 85mph change up and getting Juan Soto to ground out to Darin Ruf at first but Josh Bell doubled off the right field wall.

Webb got Nelson Cruz out with an easy bouncer to the mound, but Bell had shown that this afternoon’s contest might not be a walk in the park. This became even more evident when the Giants committed a costly baserunning mistake in the bottom of the first. Wilmer Flores walked with two outs.

Brandon Crawford, battting clean up, dropped a bunt that Washington’s starting pitcher, righty Joan Adón (1-3,6.98) fielded and threw into right field,. Flores tried to score but was thrown out at home by third baseman Maikel Franco, playing in the shift.

Sloppy fielding cost the Giants dearly in the top of the third. Víctor Hernández led off with a walk. Alcides Escobar´s double to right fieldsent the runner to third, and both batter anñd runner advanced a base when Luis González couldn’t come up with the ball.

Escobar wasn’t credited with an RBI, but the run earned because of what happened next. Hernández doubled to left center, driving in Escobar. After Soto flew out to center, Josh Bell singled to right, bringing Hernández home, where umpire Adam Beck called him safe.

The Giants protested the call, which was overturned on review. Cruz singled, putting Bell in scoring position at second. But Yadiel Hernández grounded out to Crawford, and the Giants were lucky to get out of the frame trailing by only two runs.

But the Giants got over their early difficulties and ultimately prevailed by the comfortable margin of 9-3 in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 33,341 paying customers.

San Francisco evened the score in the bottom half of the inning after Adón hit Flores with a pitch with the count at 3-1. Crawford drew a walk, and Tairo Estrada’s double to left center drove in both of them.

The pesky Nats responded in their next turn at bat. After Ruf robbed Franco of a possible double by a leaping grab of his liner as was about to pass into right field, they loaded the bases on two infield singles, interrupted by Robles’s solid single to left center. The pitcher’s best friend came to Webb’s in the form of an inning ending twin killing, Crawford unassisted to Ruff.

The Giants load the bases with no outs in the home fifth, driving Adón from themound with singles by González and Ruf, followed by a walk to Flores. Southpaw Josh Rogers came on to retire Crawford on a pop up to short.

He almost wiggled out of the jam, but Estrada beat out the relay to first on what almost had been a 6-4-3 double play Mauricio Dubón pinch hit for Jason Krizan and singled to left, driving in Ruf and sending Rogers to the showers, replaced by the right handed Erasmo Ramírez.

He closed the frame by inducing a 6-4 force out of Dubón at second by Slater. San Fancisco now led, 4-2, the first lead they´d held since last Monday against Oakland.

Adón had pitched four innings and thrown 86 pitches, 50 for strikes. The four Giant runs were charged to him, and they were earned. He gave up four hits and three walks and also hit one batter. He notched five strikeouts. He ended up taking the loss.

Washington got one back in the top of the sixth on Hernández’s lead off double, followed two outs later by a drive down the left field line that just barely got by a diving Vosler at third.

Vosler got that run back for the home team two pitches into the bottom of the inning. On a 1-0 count, he took Ramírez deep, 376 feet deep into Leví’s Landing. Curt Casali followed that with a single to left that ended Ramírez´s brief tenure on the hill, where Kyle Finnegan replaced him, facing the top of the Giants´ batting order.

Soon he was facing the meat of the order with the bases loaded with no outs and another run in, having walked Gonzále and allowed a single to Ruf.

He almost pulled out of the situation with minimal damage by getting Flores to ground into a 6-4-3 DP. But a single to right by Crawford and a throwing error by Escobar on a grounder by Estrada cost him another run.

Lefty José Alvarez relieved Webb at the start of the visitors´seventh. The Giants´starter had hurled six complete innings and allowed three runs, all earned, on 11 hits and one free pass. The threw 95 pitches, 34 of which were balls. He ended up as the winning pitcher improving his won-lost record to 3-1, although his ERA rose to 3.26.

The hometown crew tacked on another run after the seventh inning stretch. Escobar threw wildly to first on Slater´s grounder to short. Slater, now playing right field, went to second on a wild pitch by Andrés Machado, the Nats new pitcher, and advanced to third on Machado’s errant pick off throw.Vosler´s sac fly to left center brought Slater in with the Giants’ ninth tally.

John Brebbia set the Nats down in order in the eighth.

Francisco Pérez took over on the mound for the Giants’ half of the eighth, becoming Washington’s sixth pitcher of the afternoon.

Mauricio Llovera finished things off for the orange and black, setting the bottom third of the National’s lineup down. in order in the ninth. A brilliant diving catch by González of Escobar’s fading liner to left capped the victory.

The series will end Sunday with a first pitch at 1:05. The Nationals will start Josiah Gray (2-2 ERA 4.05) and for San Francisco Alex Cobb gets the nod (1-0 ERA 4.82) at Oracle Park.