These pretzels are making me thirsty

Nationals 4, Giants 2

Too many times this year we’ve seen Saturday’s script come out of the writers' room.

The main character in this case was Nationals pitcher Brad Lord, he of nine career starts. But on other days it’s been illustrious throwers of the baseball like JP Sears, Keider Montero, and Jake Irvin who have posted some of their best starts of the year against the Giants.

Lord had completed six innings only twice in the last 13 months, and one of those was against the Cubs—the Iowa Cubs. On Saturday he breezed through six frames, allowing only a run on four hits.

On the other side of the story was Carson Whisenhunt, filling the role of Giants starter who doesn't pitch the team out of the game but doesn't measure up to his counterpart.

Tying it all together was a Giants offense creating opportunities that it couldn't cash in on, going hitless with runners in scoring position. You wait for the rally-killing moment like the freeze frame at the end of a Seinfeld episode. You know it's coming, but the punchline is never as good as the writers think.

Up next: Justin Verlander (1-8, 4.29 ERA) and MacKenzie Gore (4-12, 4.29 ERA) square off as the Giants go for a third straight series win. First pitch at 1:05 pm.