Game Wrap 7/5/2015: Nationals 3 Giants 1

The Giants lost another frustrating, close game to finish off one of the worst road trips in recent memory.  Key Lines:

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 4, HR(12).  BA= .265.  Crawford keeps on showing surprising power, although the BA has dipped a bit from its high water mark.  Crawford could probably use a day off.

Ryan Vogelsong- 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 4.10.  Vogey was holding his own against the fearsome Jordan Zimmermann when he finally had it with Phil Cuzzi's ridiculous strike zone, or lack thereof.  Even the ESPN announcing crew which included Curt Schilling and I assume were neutral in their allegiances were highly critical of Cuzzi's umpiring acumen and said Vogey and Bochy had a legitimate beef.  They even defended Vogey coming down off the mound on the grounds he might have been talking to his catcher rather than the ump.

Josh Osich- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.  A big silver lining to this awful road trip.  The Giants may have found their lefty reliever of both the present and future.  2.1 impressive innings from Osich including 2 bit outs against Bryce Harper.

Brandon Belt- 0 for 3, BB. BA= .270.  Not saying this was the difference in the game, but the Nationals do not score an insurance run in the 8'th with a better defensive LF in the game.  Harper's double was clearly Belt's ball.  He just isn't fast enough or good enough at OF reads to have made the play even if he had tried to.  As it was, he just hung back and let Pagan go after it, something Pagan clearly didn't think he should have to do.  Even if he doesn't catch the ball, and it did look catchable, Belt was in a better position to hold Harper to a single which would have prevented that extra run.

The Loss was the Giants 6'th in a row on the 6 game road trip.  There was only one of those losses that was not close.   A hit falling in here, a better pitch there, a better umpire in a couple of games and this road trip could easily have been 5-1 instead of 0-6.  As it stands, the Giants are 4 games behind the NL West leading Dodgers and 1.5 games ahead of the 3'rd place D'Backs.  They trail in the Wild Card race by 3.5 games.

The Giants will stay overnight in Washington DC and fly home in the morning.   They start a home series against the Mets tomorrow night with Chris Heston facing Jonathan Niese in game 1.