The Washington Nationals already have an impressive starting rotation.
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Should the division-leading Giants and Nats finish in first place with identical records and draw each other in an NL Division Series, the Nats would hold the tiebreaker for home-field advantage. The tried-and-true blueprints for deep playoff runs dictate teams plan ahead without looking ahead, see the future without overlooking the present.
“Defence wins championships”, Revere said. In one seven-batter slice from the fourth to the sixth inning, the Nationals lined into a double play, flied out to the warning track, hit a home run, flied out to the warning track, lined out to left field, flied out to the warning track and hit a home run. In August, it is just another game.
“That’s who he is”, Bochy said.
Nationals: RHP Tanner Roark (11-6) has won five of his last six decisions, including his last two starts when he earned victories over Arizona and San Francisco.
“He’s been dealing with this for a couple of days”, Baker said. Over and over, Roark has shown the grit of a pitcher compensating for lackluster stuff.
Madison Bumgarner has a unique opportunity over these final two months of the season. He struck out Denard Span by challenging him with a fastball away. And two mistakes, after they advanced a runner to second base with no outs in both the third and fourth, were glaring. Roark fell behind 2-0, worked back into the count, and challenged him with a four-seamer on the inside corner. The Giants are 1-6 in his starts since June 27, and less robust run support is just a partial explanation.
The most frustrating, and perhaps emblematic, swing with runners on base came via Brandon Belt. It is important to get him going.
It will be hard for Bumgarner s candidacy to gain traction, though, or for the Giants (63-48) to distance themselves in the NL West, if they can not win on their ace s day. No one in the majors has had a longer one this season.
The home runs only tacked on to the Nationals’ earlier lead. “If I probably had to do it again, I send him with two outs”. They really did not threaten Bumgarner much at all. It was the decisive swing in the game, because less than 24 hours after the Giants dropped seven runs on the Nationals, they couldn’t muster even one to keep an undeserved “L” off Bumgarner’s record. Daniel Murphy side-stepped it and tried to backhand it. That wasn’t without a little help from the Giants, who plagued themselves with runners in scoring position. The fact that no one was warming in the bullpen began to look like a fatal oversight. Revere has not been the hitter the Nationals hoped this season, lost the leadoff spot, then playing time in center field. He did his best Willie Mays impression – against Mays’ former team – and saved two runs along the way.
Roark escaped multiple jams, working around five hits and three walks, striking out five. He has made two starts against the Giants in the past 10 days. He held Toronto to two runs over 6 2-3 innings. The Belt flyout in the seventh was thanks to an over-the-shoulder catch by Ben Revere at the center field wall. Shawn Kelley tossed a flawless eighth inning and Mark Melancon closed the door in the ninth in his first save situation since joining the Nats at the deadline.
Melancon – acquired last week in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates for reliever Felipe Rivero and Single-A left-hander Taylor Hearn – picked up where Roark and Kelley left off.
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Matt Cain validated the coaching staff’s decision to keep him in the rotation over Jake Peavy, Eduardo Nez 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 nearly 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.
