Giants trounce Nationals early, win 7-1

The San Francisco Giants got it done early in Friday night’s game against the Washington Nationals, winning 7-1.

This was expected to be a bullpen game for the Giants, but it ended up being a bullpen game for both teams, as the Giants chased Patrick Corbin out of the game in the second inning when the Giants did their damage.

It started with a double to right from Brandon Crawford to lead off the inning. After striking out Mauricio Dubón, Corbin battled with Joey Bart, who worked a walk out of him. This brought up Mike Yastrzemski, who hit a single that was kicked by Victor Robles, allowing Crawford to score without a throw.

Up came Austin Slater, who has a good (if brief) history of hitting well against Corbin. And he proved that once again, hitting a home run to right center field, his first of the year, driving in Bart and Yastrzemski.

But it was not over yet. Wilmer Flores singled to right field, and after Brandon Belt struck out, Darin Ruf singled as well, followed by Thairo Estrada, who worked a full count into a walk to load the bases for Crawford’s second at-bat of the inning.

Now, you may remember that Brandon Crawford is kind of known for his grand slams. And while he didn’t get one here, he did clear the bases with his second double of the inning, which got past the glove of Lane Thomas, giving the Giants a 7-0 lead and driving Patrick Corbin from the game in the second inning.

This is the second time Corbin has had an outing like this, the last being his second start of the season, during which he gave up six runs and didn’t make it out of the third. This was, obviously, a bit worse.

Erasmo Ramírez entered, getting Dubón to ground out to end the inning.

Now, don’t get down on Dubón just yet. In the bottom of the third inning, Dubón had the play of the game. Juan Soto hit a ball off the right centerfield wall that got over the head of Yastrzemski. Dubón chased it down and threw a rocket to third base where Flores was able to tag out Soto (who was trying to stretch a double into a triple) to end the inning after an unsuccessful challenge by the Nationals.

The lone Nationals run came on a home run from Maikel Franco off of Yunior Marte, the first run he’s allowed this season.

Another notable performance was Jakob Junis, who was called up today to make his Giants debut. Junis entered in long relief of Long in the third inning and went five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out four.

Speaking of Giants debuts, a fun fact to leave you with!

We’ll be back here tomorrow morning for more breakfast baseball at 10:05 am PT. I’ll bring the bagels, you bring the coffee.