SF Giants can't finish off sweep vs. Nationals, shut out to finish road trip
The Giants couldn’t finish off a sweep of the Washington Nationals on Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park, ending their nine-game road trip with a 3-0 shutout loss.
“The vibe and the approach we had going into the game and the first five or six innings was really, really good,” manager Tony Vitello told reporters. “It’s a lot easier to be energetic or celebrate or look like things are going well for you when you’re getting rewarded or you find a way to manufacture stuff on offense.
“We just didn’t have anything going against the three guys they threw up against us. I think that played into it a lot.”
After scoring 17 runs in the first two games of the series, San Francisco went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position Sunday despite getting eight hits, one more than the Nationals.
San Francisco finishes its visit to the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Nationals with a 4-5 record. The Giants are 9-13 on the season.
Robbie Ray (2-3) recorded his second quality start of the season, allowing three runs over six innings with seven strikeouts, but he took his third loss this season after receiving no run support. Ray gave up all three runs in the fifth inning, two on Curtis Mead’s second homer of the year.
Opposite Ray, the Nationals started the game with PJ Poulin, an opener, followed by a pair of bulk relievers in veteran Miles Mikolas and rookie Andrew Alvarez. The left-handed Alvarez was exceptional, pitching 4 1/3 scoreless frames with five strikeouts and no walks.
“It’s tough because I feel like I made one bad pitch today,” Ray said. “That was it. I made every pitch that I wanted to make except for that one (to Mead). I guess the positive out of that is, I don’t know how many I threw, but over 90 pitches were exactly what I wanted to do.
“I threw some really good curveballs today, some really good sliders. Kept them off balance the whole time and was still able to keep us in it even though the homer is not ideal.”
The Giants put runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the first, prompting rookie manager Blake Butera to pull Poulin and bring in Mikolas. It was a bit of a surprising move since bulk relievers typically start with clean innings, but the move worked in Butera’s favor as Mikolas retired Casey Schmitt to end the inning.
Following four scoreless innings on both sides, the Nationals scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the fifth thanks to an ugly defensive sequence by San Francisco.
With no outs and Nasim Nuñez on second base, Keibert Ruiz hit a line drive to left-center field that left fielder Heliot Ramos couldn’t corral. The ball hung in the air long enough for Ramos to make the play, but he took an inefficient route and allowed the ball to fall despite making a diving effort.
Ramos, from his backside, heaved a throw to shortstop Willy Adames. With Nuñez trying to score, Adames fired a one-hop strike to catcher Patrick Bailey. Adames’ throw arrived in time and Nuñez didn’t even slide, but Bailey couldn’t cleanly receive the ball and Nuñez scored, giving the Nationals a 1-0 lead.
The mistakes by Ramos and Bailey compounded when the Nationals’ Mead hit a two-run homer two batters later, expanding Washington’s lead to 3-0. Ray was charged for three earned runs, but his defense didn’t do him any favors in that inning.
The Giants had an opportunity to get on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth when Matt Chapman reached on an error and Rafael Devers followed with a single, but squandered the opportunity. Schmitt grounded into a double play, and Jerar Encarnacion (pinch-hitting for Jung Hoo Lee) struck out swinging.
Up next
Following an off day on Monday, the Giants will welcome the back-to-back reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers to Oracle Park for a three-game set. Right-hander Landen Roupp (3-1, 2.38 earned-run average) will take the mound for the Giants on Tuesday night against 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-1, 2.10).
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This story was originally published April 19, 2026 at 1:17 PM.