Nats' solid showing vs. Snell undone by Giants' offensive outburst

WASHINGTON -- The Nationals faced Giants hurler Blake Snell in his first start since throwing a no-hitter last Friday against the Reds. The goal was to snap Snell’s momentum from carrying over into Wednesday’s matchup at Nationals Park.

“He definitely had a good outing last time,” manager Dave Martinez said pregame. “We’ve just got to get the ball up and in the strike zone, be selective.”

The Nationals scored three runs in six innings off Snell in their 7-4 loss to the Giants. They recorded four hits against him and struck out eight times.

“He threw a lot of strikes, so we had to be aggressive and in the zone,” said Martinez. “We scored some runs, had some hits off of him. I thought we handled ourselves really well. We had a couple chances to have some big innings, just couldn’t get anything going.”

Washington maneuvered its lineup to counter the southpaw, who now has a 1.15 ERA in his past six starts. Alex Call moved up to the No. 2 spot, Juan Yepez, Harold Ramírez and Ildemaro Vargas batted in the middle of the order and lefty-hitting James Wood slid down to No. 6.

“I wanted to get righties up there in the lineup,” Martinez said. “I always say, 'Try to beat the starter.'”

The Nats did their damage in the third inning. Jacob Young led off the frame with Snell’s only walk of the night. He advanced to second base on a pickoff attempt throwing error by Snell, and to third on a CJ Abrams groundout.

With two outs, Alex Call drove in Young on an RBI single into left field. Call is batting .444 (12-for-27) with seven RBIs in nine games since being recalled from Triple-A Rochester on July 28.

“He’s getting in a good position to hit the baseball,” Martinez said of Call. “He’s not really trying to pull the ball, he’s trying to stay in the middle of the field. So he’s getting better swings at the ball, being ready to hit the fastball a little bit better and being a little bit more aggressive. Last year, it seemed like he was always hitting with two strikes.”

In the next at-bat, Yepez belted a go-ahead home run to put the Nats up, 3-2. Yepez’s third homer of the season traveled a Statcast-projected 403 feet to left field. It was his first 400-plus-foot home run since June 27, 2022, as a member of the Cardinals. Yepez has hit safely in 23 of his 28 Major League games this season, including 12 multihit performances.

“I was super pumped when Yepez hit that home run,” said Call. “... It was good to get the lead and make [Snell] work. He had good stuff, but we still made him work. We did a good job in that manner.”

Washington had faced Snell this season for his Giants debut on April 8 at Oracle Park. The Nats worked early at-bats that night, driving Snell’s pitch count up to 72 after he allowed three runs in just three innings, and handed him the loss. On Wednesday, Snell threw 93 pitches across six frames.

“His stuff is good,” Martinez said. “He’ll try to get ahead. He’s got a good breaking ball, his fastball’s really good. He knows how to pitch.”

The Nationals’ early offense was quieted until they scored again in the seventh inning, but by then the Giants had plated another five runs. Starting right-hander Jake Irvin fell to 8-10 on the season.

“The defense played outstanding, the offense put up some numbers against a Cy Young winner and a really good pitcher, and I let the team down,” said Irvin.

The Nats and Giants will face off in the series finale on Thursday, which was moved up to a 12:05 p.m. ET start time because of forecasted inclement weather.