Jason Marquis’ pitching helps Washington Nationals defeat San Francisco Giants 3-0 - Part 1
Jason Marquis put in a brilliant pitching effort as Washington Nationals defeat San Francisco Giants 3-0 at Nationals Park, Washington on Friday, April 29.
Who would have thought the reigning World Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants would be defeated by the one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball, the Washington Nationals. The Nationals have constantly been on the bottom of all Power Ranking
lists that have emerged on a weekly basis since this season started.
Lately the Giants’ performances have not been up to expectations. They have been slow and failed to show any consistency. Their star pitcher, Tim Lincecum who was almost untouchable last year has not failed to dominate or impress. Perhaps that is what led
the Nationals to defeat the Giants.
Pitcher par excellence, Lincecum, who is often compared to the likes of aces such as Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, allowed three earned runs to Washington, which is more than what he had allowed in his last three starts combined. From the Nationals side, Jason
Marquis their starter impressed as he threw a five hit shut-out and had an RBI single of his own to help the team’s offence. Laynce Nix put in his bit as he started off with a rare two run homer which helped significantly in knocking the Giants out.
Out of the last eight games that the Giants have played, they lost six. Although the pitching in those games was not anything remarkable, it was the offence that let them down. San Francisco could only managed two or less runs in almost five of their previous
matches which show the disappointing state of their offence. To make matters worse, in two of the last three games that they played, they could not manage to get anything but a zero on the scoreboards.
"Hitting's contagious," manager Bruce Bochy said. "So is not hitting. Right now we've got a serious virus in this lineup."
This match marked the sixth game for Aubrey Huff out of the last eight that he played where he remained hitless. His average has dropped to .202. The worst part is that he is not the only one from the team who seems to be on a hitting drought. Bochy has
been forced to make adjustments to his line-up as the Giants scoring slump continues with almost no hope of being revitalised.
Previously Lincecum had been on fire as he struck-out seven in seven innings after which he led the Major Leagues, but his performances have gone downhill from there. He dropped his second consecutive decision after that and allowed six walks along with
five earned runs in his last start.
Although he did not allow any of the Nationals to walk, they managed to find the plate too often. At the end of the day, that is what proved to be costly for the Giants.
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