The San Francisco Giants hope to ride the momentum of a successful road trip in the wake of a trade-deadline sell-off when they oppose the Washington Nationals on Friday night in the opener of a nine-game homestand.
The Giants returned from a pair of 2-1 series wins over the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates in fifth place in the National League wild-card standings, having played better ball of late on the road than at home.
The last time the Giants took the field at in San Francisco, they were completing an 0-6 homestand against those same Mets and Pirates. They enter the weekend series having lost eight in a row at home, while they have won six of their past eight on the road.
Though the Giants lost new starting right fielder Jerar Encarnacion to a strained right hamstring on Wednesday in a series-ending, 4-2 win at Pittsburgh, the trip finished with encouraging performances by center fielder Jung Hoo Lee and first baseman Dominic Smith.
Lee had an extra-base hit in all six games of the trek while going 10-for-24 (.417). Smith extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a tiebreaking pinch single in the ninth inning of the Wednesday win.
The Giants flew home with a lot of confidence, according to Smith.
“This clubhouse has a belief that we can win and go on a run,” he said. “Understanding that it’s one game at a time, and if we can win that, then we’ll stack enough series wins, and then who knows where we’ll be at the end of the year.”
The Giants will open the series with right-hander Kai-Wei Teng (0-1, 13.50) making his first home start. The 26-year-old, whose four appearances last season were all in relief, struggled in his first big-league start on Saturday against the Mets, serving up five runs in 3 1/3 innings during a 12-6 defeat.
Among Teng’s outings as a rookie last season was one against the Nationals, when he allowed two runs in 3 1/3 innings in an 8-1 loss.
Washington lost two of three to the Giants in a low-scoring home series in May. The Nationals’ lone win came in the start of Jake Irvin (8-6, 4.89 ERA), who will get the ball on Friday. The 28-year-old right-hander has done his best pitching of late on the road, having allowed a total of two earned runs over 12 innings at Milwaukee and Minnesota in his past two away starts.
Irvin threw arguably his best game of the season in a 3-0 victory over the Giants on May 24, when he yielded three hits and two walks while striking out seven in eight innings. The result improved his career record against San Francisco to 3-1 with a 2.77 ERA in four starts.
The Nationals flew west after a 6-0 loss to the Athletics on Thursday that ended a 1-5 homestand. They have lost seven of their past eight overall.
While Washington has little reason to get excited about the final 48 games of the season, Irvin hopes the performance of former University of Oklahoma pal Cade Cavalli inspires his own uplifting effort in San Francisco.
Making his first major league appearance since August 2022, Cavalli worked the first 4 1/3 innings of a 2-1 win over the A’s on Wednesday, holding the visitors scoreless while fanning six.
“It’s freaking awesome,” Irvin said after the game. “Getting to play with a college teammate and a great friend of mine is something that means a lot.”