Chapman has 3 hits including a homer, Snell goes 6 innings and Giants beat Nationals 7-4
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman hit fifth-inning solo homers to break a 3-3 tie and the San Francisco Giants beat the Washington Nationals 7-4 on Wednesday night.
Ramos homered for the second straight game, and Chapman finished a triple short of the cycle for the Giants, who have won nine of 12. Mike Yastrzemski added a solo homer and an RBI triple.
San Francisco has homered 15 times over its past six games.
“It makes a huge impact,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said of the power surge. “When you’re not having to string a ton of hits together, and situationally we haven’t been great lately, so those homers have a big impact in the game, put a lot of energy in our dugout.”
Blake Snell (2-3), coming off a no-hitter against the A’s in his last start, gave up three runs on four hits over six innings, retiring the last nine hitters he faced. He had allowed only two earned runs total in his five starts since coming off the injured list. Snell, who struck out eight and walked one, threw 93 pitches.
“Had to battle sweat today,” Snell said of the hot, humid Washington weather. “It was tough. Made pitching a lot harder than it needed to be, but found ways to make a quality start out of it, so that’s good. Felt good, just had to battle a lot more because of that.”
The Nationals loaded the bases against closer Camilo Doval with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Doval got Alex Call to ground into a double play for his 22nd save.
“We got the winning run up to the plate and I was just trying to move the line,” said Call, who crashed into the wall making a leaping catch to end the top of the ninth. “Didn’t work out.”
Juan Yepez had two hits including a homer for the Nationals.
Washington’s Jake Irvin (8-10) gave up five runs on eight hits — three of them home runs — over five innings.
“The execution was terrible and they took advantage of it,” Irvin said of San Francisco’s homer.
CJ Abrams singled home a run in the seventh to make it 7-4 and Washington loaded the bases with two outs before reliever Ryan Walker struck out Yepez.
The Nationals took a 3-2 lead against Snell in the third when Call singled home Jacob Young and Yepez followed with his third home run.
Yastrzemski tied it with a solo shot in the fourth.
With one out in the fifth, Ramos hit his 17th home run of the season and one out later, Chapman hit his 19th of the season. Ramos has homered in consecutive games after missing two with a jammed right thumb.
“It’s still there for sure,” Ramos said of the thumb issue, “but mentally I just want to stay aggressive. If I don’t stay aggressive I don’t have a chance. If I stay aggressive I know I will be fine.”
Chapman has homered in four of his past five games. Over his past 14 games, Chapman is hitting .377 (20 for 53) with five doubles, six homers, 13 RBIs and 13 runs scored.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Nationals: C Keibert Ruiz was not in the starting lineup after taking two foul balls off his facemask on Tuesday night. He came in as a pinch hitter in the ninth and was hit by a pitch. … INF Joey Gallo (left hamstring strain) went 2 for 3 with a homer and two walks while playing first base in his first rehab game with Triple-A Rochester.
UP NEXT
Giants LHP Kyle Harrison (6-5, 4.09 ERA) opposes LHP DJ Herz (2-4, 4.27) in the series finale.
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