Washington Nationals can’t make it two in a row, drop 9-3 decision to the San Francisco Giants…

It wasn’t pretty this afternoon in the Giants’ home, where the Nationals dropped a 9-3 decision…

Adon vs San Francisco Again:

Joan Adon, 23, tossed 6 ¹⁄₃ scoreless against the Arizona Diamondbacks in his third start of the 2022 campaign and fourth start in the majors, but took something of a step back when he faced the San Francisco Giants last week in the nation’s capital, giving up six hits, a walk, and five earned runs in four-plus innings.

His manager, Davey Martinez, explained his thinking with the relatively quick hook for Adon.

“He had a bunch of high-leverage situations early, his pitch count got up there, so we thought it was the perfect time,” Martinez said.

Going up against the Giants again this afternoon, Adon worked around a two-out walk in the first (and a throwing error on a bunt which ended with a 5-2 putout at home), and then a hit-by-pitch and two-out single in the second, for two scoreless on 38 pitches, and he took the mound in the third with a 2-0 lead, and retired the first two batters he faced, before hitting Wilmer Flores and walking Brandon Crawford in front of Thairo Estrada, who lined a 95 MPH 2-2 fastball to the left-center gap for a two-out, two-run double, 2-2.

Back-to-back singles by Luis González and Darin Ruf set Wilmer Flores up with a first-and-third, no-out opportunity in the fifth, and a walk to Flores loaded the bases and Adon’s day…

Joan Adon’s Line: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 5 Ks, 86 P, 50 S, 4/1 GO/FO.

Webb vs Washington:

Pitching in Washington, D.C. last weekend, San Francisco Giants’ righty Logan Webb held the home team to three runs on seven hits and a walk in 6 ²⁄₃ IP, over which he struck out six, giving up just an RBI single by Yadiel Hernández in the bottom of the first, and then a two-run blast by the left-handed hitting outfielder in a 98-pitch outing in a 12-3 win.

Webb tossed two scoreless to start this afternoon, working around a two-out double by Josh Bell in the first and a leadoff single by Yadiel Hernández in the second, but he then walked Victor Robles to start the top of the third, before back-to-back RBI doubles off of Alcides Escobar and César Hernández’s bats drove in the first two runs for the Nats, 2-0.

Cesár Hernández appeared to score on an RBI single by Josh Bell, beating a throw home by Giants’ right fielder Luis González on a close play at the plate. The safe call was challenged, however, and overturned, 3-0, still 2-0 after two and a half.

Riley Adams (infield single), Victor Robles (100+ MPH liner to left), and Alcides Escobar (hit up the middle of the infield) connected for one-out knocks in the top of the fourth, after a two-run bottom of the third for the Giants tied things up at 2-2, but Webb got a 6-3 DP out of César Hernández to keep it knotted up.

Hernández got Webb again with a leadoff double to right-center to lead off the sixth, with the Giants up 4-2, and one out later Victor Robles got a ground ball through to left field to bring Hernández in from second and make it a one-run game, 4-3.

Logan Webb’s Line: 6.0 IP, 11 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 KS, 95 P, 61 S, 8/1 GO/FO.

Bullpen Action:

Josh Rogers took over for the Nationals with the bases loaded and no one out in the Giants’ fifth, and popped Brandon Crawford up for the first out, then got a grounder to short for a potential inning-ending DP, but Thairo Estrada beat the relay throw to first after the force at second, allowing a run to score and put the Giants ahead, 3-2, and a two-out RBI single off of Mauricio Dubón’s bat made it a 4-2 game in the home team’s favor.

Erasmo Ramirez finished off the fifth, but gave up a leadoff home run by Jason Vosler in the San Francisco sixth, with the third baseman hitting one into McCovey Cove on a 1-0 cutter up and in that he turned around and hit 376 feet to right field and out of the park, 5-3.

A single by Curt Casali ended Ramirez’s outing, but Kyle Finnegan came on and gave up a walk to Luis González and a single by Darin Ruf that loaded the bases again. Wilmer Flores stepped in next and grounded into a 6-4-3 as Casali scored, 6-3, and it was 8-3 after a Brandon Crawford single and ROE on a Thairo Estrade grounder allowed two more to score.

Giants’ lefty José Álvarez retired the Nationals in order in the top of the seventh.

A comedy (not the funny kind) of errors played out in the Giants’ half of the seventh inning, with Nationals’ reliever Andres Machado on the mound for the Nationals, with a single, wild pitch, throwing error (by the pitcher), and a sac fly Jason Vosler leading to the ninth run of the game for the home team, 9-3.

Nationals now 7-16