WASHINGTON D.C. - At 1:16 a.m. at Nationals Park, the Giants lost the game 3-1. The home team lost much more than that on this night.
Nationals superstar right fielder Bryce Harper appeared to suffer a serious injury to his left knee in the first inning, putting another dark cloud over a long night. The Nationals scored two runs in that inning and that would be all they needed.
A night after the teams were rained out, they waited three hours and one minute to get started because of an ugly storm that drenched the area. The crowd stayed engaged, but within minutes, a hush fell over Nationals Stadium. Harper slipped on first base while trying to beat out a grounder to Ryder Jones, and his knee went the wrong direction. He immediately grabbed at it as he rolled on the ground, and he was helped off the field without putting any pressure on his leg.
The Nationals did not have an update during the game. For now, here are five things to know from a wet night …
-- Ryder Jones isn't hitting much, but he sure plays a nice first base. His diving stop robbed Andrew Stevenson of a single in the fifth. Jones also showed his athleticism a couple of ways on the Harper play, first by stopping the hard shot and then by twisting his body to avoid a collision with Harper at the bag.
-- The Giants are looking at 27 innings of baseball in about 24 hours, so every out from Jeff Samardzija was huge. He threw 120 pitches on a humid night while getting through six innings. He tied Matt Moore for the most pitches thrown by a Giants starter this season.
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-- Mark Melancon pitched the eighth, making his first appearance since June 27. He gave up a single and struck out one. His fastball topped out at 93 mph. That's a good sign on the first night back.
-- Joe Panik opened the scoring with a long homer in the first. It was his seventh of the year. He has a chance to surpass his career-high of 10.
-- Denard Span is in a funk. He rolled out to second three times in four plate appearances, and he has just five hits in his last 41 at-bats.
