New lineup sparks big offense! Bullpen makes it interesting in the end!

The outfield did it tonight with their bats, gloves and arms to get the Nats going tonight as the team returned to .500 on the season at 8-and-8 in what should have been considered a trouncing of the Giants and MLB’s number one bullpen. The Nats got to Giants starter Jeff Samardzija early with a Juan Soto two-run bomb and a Howie Kendrick  home run and an Adam Eaton RISP single.

It was the Nats defense that saved the day with Victor Robles throwing out a runner at 3rd base and Juan Soto making a running catch on a liner down the line to save 2 runs. Jeremy Hellickson went 5 2/3 innings of 2-run baseball and also got a great diving stop by Anthony Rendon at 3rd base to save Hellickson another run.

Speaking of Rendon, he got a single in his final at-bat to extend his hitting streak to 15 games.

In the 7th inning, Matt Adams crushed a three-run homer, and Kurt Suzuki added a two-run shot to push 5 runs over on the Giants bullpen.

Not to be overlooked, Matt Grace took advantage of the cool weather and wind blowing in slightly to retire pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval at the wall in the right-center gap with a man on first base in a 4-2 game at the time. Wander Suero pitched a scoreless 7th inning for the hold.

The ugly bullpen reared its head when Austen Williams could not retire an out in the 9th and gave up 4 runs and was replaced by Kyle Barraclough who got a quick out only to be replaced by Sean Doolittle in a non-save situation. Posey greeted Doolittle with a smash off the centerfield wall to start his night. Doolittle walked Brandon Belt to make it interesting then K’d Brandon Crawford and then got Evan Longoria on a foul-out to seal the victory  9-to-6.

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