MadBum Blanks Nationals, Hits Another Home Run

San Francisco’s bullpen has allowed three hits over 8 1/3 scoreless innings in the first two games of the series and might have an emerging star in rookie Josh Osich, who has yielded one earned run in his first 12 appearances.

The teams will meet for a seventh and final time in the regular season on Sunday.

RHP Max Scherzer continued his recent struggles Friday night in an 8-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

After catcher Hector Sanchez worked a full-count walk, Peavy did the same in an at-bat that began with him trying to bunt.

“You’ll know when I make the lineup tomorrow. OK?”

Three pitches later, Gonzalez found himself down 4-2.

Duffy, who committed two of the Giants’ three errors, homered in the first, doubled in a run in the second, singled in the fourth and hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth. “That’s an impressive outing with how hot it was”. “He competes up there”. “I don’t want to say he’s ideal, but he was flawless in the leadoff spot for us”. He racked up a run, a hit and a couple of walks.

Brandon Belt followed with a drive to left field that carried in the warm air and struck the wall for an RBI double.

With injuries to starters Tim Lincecum, Tim Hudson and recently acquired Mike Leake, Giants manager Bruce Bochy has perhaps extended his patience with a veteran who has been back a little more than a month from elbow surgery and a strained flexor tendon. “It’s tough to swallow. I said we had to play our best ball, and we did”.

The Nationals are now -105 when they visit the San Francisco Giants. The three newcomers combined for two doubles and Espinosa’s home run in the loss. “He might be the best in the bigs right now”. The crowd was super loud, but can you blame them?

Matt Cain failed to finish the fifth inning for a second straight start, allowing five runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings for the Giants. With the defending World Series Champion on the mound, no runner made it past second base on the Nationals.

One of the hits was the loudest of the night. They also were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. Since 2011, he has hit at least 25 home runs every year and has been reliable playing in over 150 games in each of those years.

The homer was Desmond’s 15th of the season. “He just wasn’t able to get comfortable in his delivery and get comfortable making the types of pitches we’ve seen from him during his time in the big leagues”. He walked one and struck out three.

“It’s real satisfying for me to be a part of the offense when the offense was the key to the win”, Peavy said. “I really had to grind (on the mound)”. “To come away with a victory on that night is sure a lot better than losing 5-4”. The Giants will be leaning heavily on Bumgarner over the next seven weeks as they look to overcome a 2.5 game deficit in their division. He allowed two home runs and has given up five over his past two starts after giving up 13 through his first 22 starts.