Well that was disappointing.

NATIONALS 8 - GIANTS 1

Matt Cain appeared to have things under control.  Adam Dunn had different ideas.

Cain was pitching OK until the 6th inning.  The only hiccup was the solo homerun to Adam Dunn in the 4th inning.  In the 6th inning the Nats scored 2 runs that pretty much put the game out of reach.  Then the 7th inning came along with another Dunn homer, a 4 run outburst, and Cain was done after allowing 8 runs 7 of which were earned.

Cain allowed 11 hits for the second time in his career.  The last time he allowed that many hits in a game was way back in 2006 .

With Cain, the problem has always been lapses in concentration.  It's nothing new.  Cain won't pitch again until after the break so hopefully he can work on that concentration.

Not much else to tell.  The Giants struggled against Strausburg which was too be expected.  They had him on the ropes in the first inning and worked him into throwing a lot of pitches.  Then they all of the sudden went into a slumber and made it easy for him to throw 6 innings.  The Giants also managed only 1 hit off of 3 Washington relievers.

The fact that the Giants were unable to keep the runs coming after the offensive barrage in Milwaukee was disappointing.  Again, Strausburg is a tough order but you would have liked to see them score more than one run.   Hopefully they look better the next 2 games before the break.

The biggest development of the day is the injury to Andres Torres.  He left the game in the 5th inning and everybody's favorite Giant Aaron Rowand came in and went 0 for 2.  I expect Torres to be allowed to heal until after the break giving Rowand plenty of chances to strikeout.

It would be too easy to give Nate Schierholtz a chance to show what he could do with two starts in a row.

Dan Runzler was also placed on the DL and Joe Martinez was called up to replace him.  Runzler is expected back in 6 weeks.  This leaves Jeremey Affeldt as the only lefthander in the Giants bullpen.

Link of the day:

The Giants will be monitoring Madison Bumgarner's workload.  he threw 140+ innings the last 2 years so he is maybe going to be allowed to throw 160 innings tops this season.