Rafael Devers and Casey Schmitt hit home runs, Kai-Wei Teng recorded his first major league win and the San Francisco Giants opened a key nine-game homestand with a 5-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday night.
Opener Matt Gage combined with Teng and relievers Joey Lucchesi, Jose Butto and Tristan Beck on a four-hitter, helping the Giants snap an eight-game home losing streak.
It took San Francisco only seven pitches to take a lead it would never relinquish when Devers bombed his 21st home run of the season, his sixth as a Giant, well over the fence in right-center field.
The hosts added another first-inning run off Nationals starter Jake Irvin (8-7) on consecutive singles by Willy Adames, Dominic Smith and Matt Chapman, then doubled the margin on Schmitt’s seventh homer of the year, a two-run shot in the sixth.
Irvin was pulled at that point, charged with four runs (three earned) on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out three and didn’t issue a walk.
After Gage set down the Nationals in order in the first, Teng (1-1) allowed just three hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out four.
The win came in his second start of the season and sixth big-league appearance overall.
Down 2-0, the Nationals threatened against Teng in the fifth when a walk to Josh Bell and singles by Robert Hassell III and Drew Millas loaded the bases with no outs. However, the right-hander got Jose Tena to ground into a fielder’s choice at the plate before inducing a double play from Jacob Young to retain the shutout.
Lucchesi threw a scoreless seventh, Butto a scoreless eighth and Beck a scoreless ninth for the Giants’ sixth shutout win of the season.
San Francisco tacked on a run in the eighth when Jung Hoo Lee, who had singled, raced home from second base on an infield hit by Patrick Bailey.
Smith, who extended his hitting streak to 12 games, Chapman and Bailey had two hits apiece for the Giants, who were coming off a 4-2 trip.
James Wood had a fourth-inning double, Washington’s only extra-base hit, as the Nationals lost for the eighth time in their past nine games.
–Field Level Media
