Baseball is unforgiving in endless ways. Unforgiving that hard hits will be caught, great pitches will be crushed and the box score has no capacity for feelings. Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija each have two wins in their last 10 starts. Samardzija has a 5.85 ERA in that span while opponents are hitting .275 off him. Bumgarner’s ERA is 2.60 and the Giants have scored two runs or less in four of his last five starts. Sunday tacked another loss to Bumgarner’s (10-7, 2.20 ERA) ledger as the Nationals escaped with a 1-0 win.
Here’s more on the Giants’ 15th loss in 21 games.
The big moment
Bumgarner made the pitch he wanted, and Wilson Ramos got the result he wanted. He pumped his fist right as his go-ahead home run came off the bat in the seventh inning. 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.
At the plate
Ten days after Roark shutdown the Giants for one run over seven innings, they faired worse on Sunday. The Nationals right-hander lasted just as long in his second start against the Giants, but shut them out entirely. That wasn’t without a little help from the Giants, who plagued themselves with runners in scoring position. The only hit in nine at-bats with a runner in scoring position came from Joe Panik in the fourth inning. He singled to center but third base coach Roberto Kelly held up Buster Posey at third base. Gregor Blanco grounded out four pitches later.
The most frustrating, and perhaps emblematic, swing with runners on base came via Brandon Belt. With runners on second and third in the seventh inning, Belt smacked a ball to deep center that Ben Revere snatched with an incredible, over-the-shoulder grab to end the inning. The Giants first baseman slammed his helmet down in frustration as the Giants last real threat was foiled.
On the mound
If you just peer through the win-loss records with Bumgarner on the mound, it’s been a tale of two seasons. The Giants were undefeated 10 straight outings from April 25 to June 14. Since then, Bumgarner’s team is 2-7 in his starts despite his 2.77 ERA in that stretch. The left-hander did all he could to buck the losing trend on Sunday afternoon in Washington D.C., but allowing one run over eight innings proved to be too much.
He allowed only one hit through the first six innings, but Ramos exposed a troubling weakness of the second-half Giants. The Nationals catcher drove an outside fastball the other way and leadoff the seventh inning with a go-ahead home run. It was the 33rd home run allowed by the Giants in 21 games since the All-Star break, and 27th home run allowed by a starter.
Otherwise, Bumgarner was brilliant. He issued two walks and struck out seven along the way. At the plate he reached base twice, singling in the third and walking in the seventh. Still wasn’t enough in his latest chapter of tough-luck losses.
In the ‘pen
Nil.
On deck
The Nationals rearranged their rotation to wash away a potential Bumgarner-Stephen Strasburg matchup, but there’s no stopping the collision course of two aces Monday night in Miami. Johnny Cueto (13-3, 2.73 ERA) crosses paths with Jose Fernandez (12-6, 2.87 ERA), the young Marlins star who’s pitched significantly better in his home ballpark. Cueto, meanwhile, is still winless in the second half. First pitch at 4:10 p.m. on KNBR 680.