After rain delays, Melvin’s ejection, SF Giants clinch series win over Nationals
It took more than 5 hours and multiple rain delays for the Giants to close out a 9-5 win over the Nats in 10 innings.
The stakes were so high for the Giants’ series finale Thursday afternoon in Washington, D.C., that manager Bob Melvin couldn’t have intended to get tossed when he started barking at home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater from the third-base dugout after the fifth batter of the game.
Scheurwater’s called strike three on Mark Canha was just that egregious.
It wasn’t just that the 2-2 changeup started high and outside and never came close to the strike zone, or that it came out of the unpredictable left hand of the Nationals’ starter, DJ Herz, who had already missed the zone 18 of his first 31 pitches.
The Giants were primed to strike early and open an important lead with storms looming and the game threatening to be called at any moment. The bases were juiced with one out and a 23-year-old rookie was on the ropes.
They got one run out of the situation — when, get this, Herz walked the next batter, Jerar Encarnacion, on four pitches — but then needed to wait another five hours, through multiple rain delays and maybe even more heart attacks, to eventually clinch their fourth straight series win, 9-5, in 10 innings over the Nationals.
Taylor Rogers was required to record the final three outs after Camilo Doval blew his fifth save of the season in soul-crushing fashion. Handed a hard-fought three-run lead, Doval walked the first two batters he faced and served up a two-out, two-strike home run to Luis Garcia, who went above the strike zone with just enough force to push the 97 mph cutter over the left-field wall, tying the score at 5.
Rather than deflating their flight home, it only pushed back their arrival time back in San Francisco following a successful 5-2 road trip.
The controversial called strike three that got his manager ejected proved to be the only time Canha made an out until extra innings, but the biggest of his four hits no doubt came with two strikes and two outs in the top of the ninth.
Poking a two-strike fastball from closer Kyle Finnegan down the right field line, the Giants’ trade deadline acquisition delivered only their second hit in 12 opportunities with runners in scoring position, clearing the bases after Tyler Fitzgerald lined a single and Heliot Ramos and Michael Conforto each worked their ways back from 0-2 counts to draw back-to-back walks.
Ramos and Conforto’s free passes were the Giants’ sixth and seventh of the game, but they had failed to capitalize on the previous five. They put the leadoff man on base in five innings but broke through for only a single run two times.
Even when Mike Yastrzemski laced a line drive into left-center field gap with two on in the third inning, they plated only one when the ball bounced over the wall and — who else? — Canha was forced to stop at third.
The missed opportunities loomed large as the game remained tied throughout 2 hours and 2 minutes of rain, field maintenance and waiting for a window to play. If either team held a lead after five innings, it could have been called.
But it was tied, so they waited.
By the time the first delay that lasted 50 minutes arrived in the top of the third, Melvin already had plenty of time to settle in to his chair in the manager’s office. He was ejected for the fifth time this season — the 64th of his career — and the second time by Scheurwater, who appeared to have a short leash, tossing Melvin before he even made it out of the dugout.
In part of their exchange picked up by the NBC Sports Bay Area telecast, Melvin can be heard telling Scheurwater, “I couldn’t hear you; I was standing up for my player. You think I could hear you? Come on, that’s (expletive) (expletive), throwing me out of that game. That’s (expletive), throwing me out of that game. Make a decent call. Make a decent call.”
Scheurwater also tossed Melvin and third-base coach Matt Williams from their April 21 game against the Diamondbacks after he mistakenly ruled a swinging strike three a foul tip, allowing Arizona to pad its ninth-inning lead.
Melvin’s ejection meant bench coach Ryan Christenson was tasked with handling the in-game strategy for a contest their club couldn’t afford to lose as they attempt to build momentum and keep pace with their red-hot foes in the National League wild card race.
Winning nine of their past 12 games, the Giants had a chance Thursday to go to sleep with a winning record for the first time since they were 29-28 after the game on May 29. But they pulled only two games closer to playoff position — and gained no ground on the top two wild card spots — as the Padres have gone 8-2 and the Diamondbacks 10-2 over the same stretch.
The win allowed them to claim their fourth straight series — their first against the Nationals since 2022 — and take a 5-2 record on the road trip home to Oracle Park, where they have played much better baseball. Ten of their next 12 games, including a crucial four-game set against the Braves, come in San Francisco, where they have gone 33-23 this season.
Christenson came out with the hook for Kyle Harrison with two outs in the fifth inning after the Nationals tied the score at 2, ensuring the Giants wouldn’t have a chance to claim victory in a weather-condensed affair.
After being tagged for six runs in the Giants’ only loss in Cincinnati, Harrison wasn’t able to complete five innings for his second straight start but limited the damage to a bloop base hit and a sacrifice bunt-sacrifice fly combo.
Harrison’s velocity was down again, with seven more sub-90 mph fastballs, but allowed only three pieces of hard contact and didn’t issue any walks for his first time in six starts, dating back to June 10. He was at only 61 pitches when he was relieved by Sean Hjelle with the first right-handed batter in the Nationals lineup coming to bat for a third time and two outs in the fifth inning.
The last batter Harrison faced, C.J. Abrams, stroked a sacrifice fly that tied the score at 2 and paid dividends on the Nationals’ small-ball strategy. Luis Garcia Jr. started the inning with a single, swiped second base with their third steal of the game and was bunted over to third base by the nine-hole hitter, Jacob Young.
Their first run was also set up by a stolen base in the third inning after Alex Call shot a one-out single up the middle, swiped second and scored, tying the game at 1, when Keibert Ruiz dropped an RBI single into shallow left field.
The Giants visited the two most aggressive teams on the base paths on this road trip and surrendered 11 stolen bases on 12 attempts after throwing out 13 of their previous 20 attempted base stealers dating back to the start of July.
After Erik Miller forced Ryan Walker to get out of his jam in the seventh inning of their win Wednesday, he was thanking Michael Conforto for saving him a day later in the same inning. The second pitch out of Miller’s hand was sent by Ildemaro Vargas on a trajectory that looked like it would deliver the Nationals a late lead, but Conforto traced it to the wall, leaped and came down with the ball.
According to Statcast, the fly ball would have been a home run in 20 of 30 MLB parks — but not in Washington.