Good, Bad & Ugly: Nationals Throw Another One Away; Lose to Giants 9-7

Washington Falls to 10-21 with Yet Another Ninth Inning Collapse

THE RESULT:  The San Francisco Giants rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth and defeated the Washington Nationals 9-7. Closer du jour Joe Beimel surrendered a three-run home run to 3B Pablo Sandoval for the dagger.

The home run followed a single and walk, all after two outs.

The now-routine ninth inning collapse followed a comeback of their own for the Nats, as they scored three in the seventh and three more in the eighth to take a 7-5 lead.

But a single run in the eighth off Kip Wells—a Bengie Molina home run—cut the deficit to one before Sandoval's blast in the ninth.

Ryan Zimmerman went 2-for-5 to extend his hitting streak to 30 games, tying George Brett for the second longest hitting streak for a third baseman. Pete Rose has the longest for 3B's at 44. It's the fourth-longest streak in majors since 2000, and the 26th streak of at least 30 games since Joe DiMaggio's 56-game record in 1941.

THE TAKEAWAY:  Lifetime, Beimel holds lefties to a .265/.329/.390 line and righties to .287/.368/.431. This season, the splits are much more significant.

Lefties: .214/.267/.286
Righties: .333/.389/.545

I'm just sayin'.

THE GOOD:  Nick Johnson. 2-for-4, HR, 5 RBI. Should have been the hero instead of writing about another goat.

THE BAD:  Jordan Zimmermann. He was not particularly sharp against a weak-hitting lineup. Seven hits and two walks in six innings, giving up five earned runs. He did strike out eight along the way, so it wasn't all bad.

THE UGLY:  Beimel. He is not built to be a closer. Period. As a situational guy and seventh/eighth inning set-up guy, great.

Also, two more errors, including Beimel's throwing error in the ninth.

NEXT GAME:  Today at 3:45 p.m. Shairon Martis (4-0, 4.67) faces the resurgent Barry Zito (1-2, 3.57). Plenty of good seats still available.