Game Wrap 4/22/2022: Giants 7 Nationals 1

 When I was a kid, I checked out a book from my school library written by Russ Hodges.  It was a collection of simple baseball stories and it was wonderful.  The one thing I remember about the book was one of the chapters started off with a question:  Did you know baseball is mentioned in the Bible?  Well, yes it is.  Genesis 1:1, in the big inning.  That was a chapter about memorable big innings in the history of baseball.  The Giants had one of those tonight, a 7-run outburst in the second inning against Patrick Corbin LHP.  It was their only scoring in the game and it was way more than enough as Sam Long LHP and Jakob Junis RHP rose to the occasion and shut down a struggling Nationals lineup.

Austin Slater LF/CF- 2 for 5, HR(1).  BA= .167.  Slater, like most Giants hitters, is off to a slow start, but he had the big blow in this one, a 3-run HR to R-CF to bump the score to 4-0.  

Brandon Crawford SS- 3 for 5, 2 2B.  BA= .245.  Crawford's first double led off the fateful 2'nd inning and his second capped the scoring by driving in 3 runs.

Mauricio Dubon CF- 0 for 3, Assist(3B).  BA= .158.  Dubon made the first and last outs of the Big Inning but he also gunned down Juan Soto with a cannon shot from CF as Soto was trying to stretch out a triple on a ball that took a big carom off the R-CF wall.  I read the throw clocked in at 93 MPH.

Sam Long LHP- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.  Long cruised through the first two innings.  As Shawn Estes commented, he's lost his slider and now pairs up a FB that hits 95 MPH with a curveball out of the same tunnel.  He is now unscored on in 4.2 IP over 4 games.  We may need to nickname him Sudden Sam!

Jakob Junis RHP- 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K.  ERA= 0.00.  If Jakob Junis was the guy you wanted the Giants to call up in this situation, raise your hand......OK, then.  Me either.  Junis shut the Nationals down for innings 3-7 and used just 61 pitches to do it. Per Ben Kaspick on Twitter, Junis threw 51% sliders and 34% changeups with the rest of his pitches divided between 2S and 4S FB's and a few curveballs thrown in for good measure.  Something to watch going forward.  I mean, talk about bulk innings! I'm guessing this will buy him a bigger cup of coffee especially with Giants SP's dropping like flies(more on that later). 

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The win bumped the Giants record to 9-5 and upped their record on the road trip to 5-3 which guarantees them at least a split of the 10-game road trip with two games to go.  Alex Wood LHP, who had his start pushed back from today tries to seal a series win and a winning record for the road trip tomorrow morning.

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The Giants placed Anthony DeSclafani RHP on the 10 day IL with right ankle inflammation.  This is worrisome in that it's the same ankle that bothered him late last season.  Steven Duggar OF was placed on the 60-day IL(ouch!) to clear 40-man roster space for Luis Gonzalez OF.  Gonzalez did not start today due to Corbin being a LHP, but with mostly RHP's coming up, the Giants wanted his LH bat over Heliot Ramos' RH bat....and yeah, they really are committed this matchup thing.