Nats come up short in all phases during loss to Giants (updated)

SAN FRANCISCO – They aren’t going to rack up 22 hits every night. No, as enjoyable as Friday night’s blowout victory at Oracle Park was, the Nationals returned to work today knowing they were going to need to make the most of the scoring opportunities they got while preventing the Giants from doing the same.

They were successful in neither department, which explains how they wound up losing 9-3 despite matching their opponents' hit total.

Unable to pitch (or field) their way out of several prolonged innings, the Nats allowed the Giants to sustain rallies despite only modest contact and plenty of ground balls. And unable to deliver the clutch hits that were so prevalent only 18 hours earlier, they managed to score only three runs on 11 hits.

It all made for a frustrating way to spend an otherwise gorgeous Saturday afternoon along McCovey Cove, spoiling some of the good vibes from the series-opening win.

Where did this one go wrong? Take your pick. It may have been Joan Adon’s inability to record an out in the fifth, an exceptionally disappointing start for the rookie. Or it may have been the four relievers who somehow were required to record the six outs necessary to complete the fifth and sixth innings, during which six San Francisco runners crossed the plate to not only take the lead but extend it.

But let’s take a moment to focus on the Nationals’ play in the field, because it had as much to do with this loss as anything else.

"We've got to clean that up," manager Davey Martinez said. "You can't give good teams 28, 29, 30 outs. It just can't happen."

Officially, they were charged with three errors, one apiece on Adon, Riley Adams and Alcides Escobar. That doesn’t begin to tell the full story, though, most notably in the case of Escobar, who seemingly didn’t have one play in the field today that didn’t make you hold your breath, bracing for disaster.

It’s been a difficult start to the season for Escobar, that’s no secret. He entered the day with minus-4 Defensive Runs Saved, tied for worst among all major league shortstops. And that number will only look worse Sunday morning when the rankings are updated after an adventurous three-plus hours in the field today.

"I've been blessed to play long enough to be comfortable out there," Escobar said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "If something doesn't go my way one play, I immediately want the ball back to me, because I know I can make the play. Today, those kind of errors, I call them very dumb. Just because it's a throwing error, something very physical and routine, usually."

Crisper defense certainly would’ve helped the Nationals, but that’s not to say the pitching staff didn’t share in the blame.

Though he minimized the damage early on, Adon flirted with disaster from the moment he took the mound. Through his first three innings, the rookie right-hander surrendered only two hits but also walked three, plunked two and committed a throwing error on Brandon Crawford’s unconventional bunt with two outs in the first. That gaffe could’ve resulted in disaster for Adon, but he was bailed out by Maikel Franco, the third baseman who from his shifted position on the other side of the diamond tracked the ball way down the first base line and then fired it to the plate, where Adams applied the tag on Wilmer Flores to end the inning.

"I tell myself after a long inning, I try to get a short inning right away after that," Adon said, also via the interpreter. "Because I want to stay in the game as long as possible. I can't have too many long innings."

Adon wasn’t so fortunate in the third when he created a two-out rally on his own and served up a two-run double to Thairo Estrada. And when he loaded the bases with nobody out in the fifth, his manager decided he’d seen enough.

"He's got to go out and attack the strike zone," Martinez said. "His fastball was scattered all over the place today, and he couldn't really get ahead. And then the pitch count just blew up on him. But we're going to keep working with him. He's got good stuff."

Thrust into a near-impossible situation, Josh Rogers actually did everything he could to strand all three runners. He got a popup and two grounders toward short. But his defense couldn’t quite turn the 6-4-3 double play needed to end the inning scoreless, then Escobar couldn’t get to Mauricio Dubón’s sharp grounder in the hole that brought home another run charged to Adon.

Rogers, Erasmo Ramírez, Kyle Finnegan and Andres Machado would collectively be charged with four runs (three earned) on five hits, a walk and a wild pitch from the fifth through the seventh innings. That stretch began with the game tied 2-2 but ended with the Giants leading 9-3.

The Nationals did briefly look poised to pick up where they left off during Friday night’s rout, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on the strength of their previously struggling 8-9-1 hitters. Victor Robles, who already went 4-for-5 on Friday, walked and delivered two more hits this afternoon to continue his recent surge. Escobar, despite his issues in the field, doubled and singled to continue a strong series at the plate. And César Hernández drove in a run with a double, his fourth hit of the series.

Hernández had chances to do more, though, and came up short. He was thrown out at the plate in the third, then hit into a killer double play with the bases loaded in the fourth.

Add those to the lengthy list of key moments that perhaps could’ve changed the tenor of this game had the Nats simply executed when they needed to.

"We had a couple opportunities to break the game open early," Martinez said. "But we hit into a double play with the bases loaded. The at-bats the last two days, I think they're coming. It's good to see us get hits. Yesterday, we had the hits with guys on base. Today, we didn't. It's unfortuante."