SAN FRANCISCO — Carson Whisenhunt’s third start in the majors encapsulated why he’s far from a finished product, as well as why he’s the Giants’ top pitching prospect.
Regarding the former, Whisenhunt allowed three runs on three home runs over four innings and took his first loss as the Giants fell 4-2 to the Washington Nationals on Saturday. He also walked three batters and allowed lots of hard contact. Regarding the latter, Whisenhunt struck out five batters and induced 19 swings-and-misses, including 11 with his signature changeup.
“I didn’t have my best stuff,” said Whisenhunt, who has a 5.02 ERA through his three starts. “The home runs, I left them pretty much middle of the plate.”
Rafael Devers’ solo homer in the sixth — his second in as many days — and Wilmer Flores’ pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the eight constituted San Francisco’s only offense of the day. The Giants’ offense had its opportunities to do damage, loading the bases in the third and eighth innings, but finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Devers, who had two hits and two walks on Saturday, has shown spurts of his ability to carry an offense since coming to San Francisco, but has yet to go on a tear for an extended period of time.
The three-time All-Star opened up the second half by going 10-for-26 with two homers and five RBIs during the Giants’ road trip against the Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves. Upon returning home, Devers went 2-for-22 as the Giants were swept by the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates. But now, Devers is 9-for-28 with three homers, seven RBIs and eight walks since the trade deadline.
All in all, Devers is slashing .276/.389/.526 with five home runs and 13 RBIs during the second half.
“I’ve been doing the same thing I’ve been doing all year, just making sure that I take advantage of all my at-bats,” Devers said through team interpreter Erwin Higueros. “I don’t think that it’s necessary for me to change anything. I’m just being the type of player that I am, and things are just beginning to work out for me.”
Opposing hitters were 1-for-18 against Whisenhunt’s sinker in his first two starts, but the left-hander allowed four hits against Washington on his sinker — including all three solo homers. Along with the hits, the Nationals generated six batted balls of at least 103 mph, the hardest-hit being Josh Bell’s 107.8 mph home run.
“They were on his fastball — they hit some fastballs for homers,” said manager Bob Melvin. “His stuff was as good as we’ve seen it today, but kind of middle-middle with three fastballs and they hit three homers off him.”
Whisenhunt immediately put San Francisco into a 1-0 deficit by allowing an opposite-field solo homer to leadoff hitter James Wood, who hadn’t homered since July 9.
Two innings later, Whisenhunt allowed two more homers in back-to-back at-bats. Former Giant Paul DeJong pulled a solo shot into the Giants’ bullpen, then Bell followed up with his own opposite-field blast to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
Washington expanded its lead to 4-0 in the top of the sixth as Wood drove home a run against Carson Seymour, but Devers got the Giants on the board in the bottom of the frame with a solo shot to cut it to 4-1.
The Giants had an opportunity to put up a crooked number in the bottom of the eighth when they loaded the bases with one out, prompting Nationals manager Miguel Cairo to summon left-hander Jose A. Ferrer to face the left-handed hitting Dominic Smith. Melvin countered by going with a pinch-hitter in Flores, who drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and brought the Giants within two runs.
The Giants entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 4-2 but put the tying run on base with one out on a pair of singles from Jung Hoo Lee and pinch-hitter Christian Koss. Ferrer ended San Francisco’s chances of a comeback by getting Patrick Bailey to hit into a game-ending double play.
“Those are things that just happen,” Devers said of the Giants’ struggles with runners in scoring position. “You go out, you take your at-bat, you try to do the best you can and you try to drive in the runner from scoring position. Those are the things that are going to happen during a campaign.”
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