SAN FRANCISCO – In a game that turned a little batty in the last two innings, the Giants made a key discovery about their right fielder: Jung Hoo Lee is an exciting, impactful player with or without a normal night’s sleep.
If only he could pitch the ninth inning.
Even when good things happen for the Giants, like a four-hit game from Lee and a spirited eighth-inning rally that gave them a two-run lead, their inability to close wins casts an omnipresent cloud of doubt over this team.
So it was in the Giants’ 4-3 loss to the Nationals on Monday night in their homecoming from a 5-5 trip, which ended with four wins in five games.
After the Giants scored twice in the eighth to take a 3-1 lead, the Nationals tagged Keaton Winn for three runs in the ninth, his second blown save in three days.
The Giants' offense, which clogged the bases all night but finished 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, had a decent shot to tie or win the game in their final frame. But with runners on the corners and two outs, Washington closer Gus Varland got Bryce Eldridge to chase a high fastball for a game-ending strikeout.
The Giants looked alive despite playing a night game in Chicago on Sunday and not landing in San Francisco until 3:09 a.m. Monday. The players arrived at Oracle Park by bus at 4 a.m., then scattered to their homes. They did not lay their heads on their pillows until near sunrise.
Lee particularly looked alive. He extended his career-best hit streak to 16 games with a fourth-inning single, then added three more knocks. His third and fourth singles ignited a game-tying rally in the sixth and the eighth-inning go-ahead rally.
Lee said he got about seven hours of sleep at home, but this was old hat for him.
“Back when I played in the KBO, sometimes you would have to go down to the countryside,” he said through translator Justin Han. “When you came back from the road, it’d be three in the morning. I’m kind of used to getting back from the road around three or four in the morning. So this wasn’t that bad.”
Logan Webb flew back ahead of the team and threw his second dominating game since returning from the injured list, finishing eight innings for the first time in just over a year and holding a potent Nationals offense to one run on five hits.
Manager Tony Vitello said Webb was one of three options to pitch the ninth after Eldridge’s double and a Jonah Cox safety squeeze gave the Giants a 3-1 lead in the eighth. Caleb Killian was not one of them. He was off.
Vitello considered having Webb take the ninth, but a lengthy Giants eighth, combined with Webb sitting at 99 pitches in his third game off the IL and the top of Washington’s lineup due up, persuaded Vitello to go to the bullpen.
Webb said he felt he could have pitched the ninth but had no issue with the manager’s decision to go to Winn.
“I was excited to watch Keaton throw,” Webb said. “It’s just unfortunate how that inning unfolded.”
Winn started the ninth by getting Washington’s best hitter, James Wood, out on a weak grounder. Winn then allowed a Luis García Jr. double and hit Curtis Mead. After both advanced on an Eric Haase passed ball, CJ Abrams tied the game with a two-run single and Daylen Lile gave the Nats the lead with a two-out single.
Dylan Smith relieved Winn for the final out.
Smith was the third pitcher Vitello considered to start the ninth. The former Tiger, who has spent most of the season in Triple-A, saved Sunday’s 2-1, 10-inning win at Wrigley Field.
Vitello left no doubt that Smith is now a bona fide candidate to save games, saying, “Smitty is kind of putting his hat in there for the end of the game.”
Before the game, Vitello said the club was not ready to bring Ryan Walker back from Triple-A, despite mechanical changes that have led the one-time closer to a 1.08 ERA in seven games with Sacramento. The staff wants to extend Walker to multiple innings so he can offer some sorely needed length from the bullpen.