The post-season baseball clash between the most beautiful and liberal city and the seat of dysfunctional government, now stands at 2 games to none in favor of the good guys.
Giant ace lefty Madison Bumgarner goes against Nat sinkerballer Doug Fister at AT and Spy Park in SF.
The Giants had a threat in the second, loading the bases with two out before Bumgarner struck out.
We join the action in the top of the third with no score.
Nats get two hits but with two out, Werth grounds out to second.
Giants up, bottom 3 still no score. Blanco grounds out to short, one out. Panik grounds out to second, Posey plops a single into right field. Sandoval grounds out to second, inning over, still no score.
End of three innings impression: so far the Giant hitters look overanxious, swinging at bad pitches. Bumgarner not looking dominant.
Nats down in order. No score.
Giants up: Pence grounds out, Belt singles to right. Crawford up. On a hit and run, Crawford takes the pitch and Belt is thrown out, then Crawford strikes out on next pitch.
End of 4, still no score. Giants still looking stupid. Shadows coming across the field will make hitting difficult.
Top 5th: Nats down in order. Still no score.
SF 5th: Ishikawa lines out to center. Bumgarner taking mighty hacks, takes ball four up and in. One on, one out. Blanco again over-anxious flies out. Panik dribbles out to first for 3rd out. Still no score. Giants continue to press, swinging at bad pitches early in the count. Basically only one ball hit hard. Bochy better put some chill pills in the gatorade if they are going to score at all.
Top 6th: Bumgarner, as usual, blowing out snot-rockets. Span leads off, gets a break when strike 3 by pitch track is called a ball, then singles to left. One on, no outs. Rendon up, best Nat hitter, flies to left. One out. Werth flies out to right center. LaRoche flies out to center for 3rd out. Still no score.
Bottom sixth: Summary: Giants have had two runners in scoring position, Nats one. This looks to me like the Giants will be shutout for the foreseeable future. Nats getting some good swings in vs Bumgarner, so I think they will be able to push one across. Shadows now at home plate.
Posey up, strikes out on breaking ball. Sandoval flies to center on second pitch. Pence pops foul out to LaRoche. End of six, no score. Fister making the Giants look like minor leaguers.
Top 7. Desmond leads off, singles to left, Harper takes ball four, two on, none out. Ramos up. Bunting situation. With two strikes, Ramos bunts, Bumgarner makes ill advised and bad throw to third that goes into the bullpen, both runners score, Ramos to second. Sandoval may be injured. Very bad play by Giants. Posey should have told Bumgarner to throw to first. A real left fielder instead of Ishikawa might have gotten Harper at the plate.
Cabrera singles to left, Ramos scores on close play at home, Cabrera takes second on throw. 3-0 Nats. Fister tries to bunt, pops out to Sandoval on diving catch. Span pops out. Rendon grounds out to short.
Bottom 7: I don't see the Giants coming back from this. Belt singles to right. Crawford grounds out to second, Belt moving to second. Ishikawa lines to Harper who makes a diving catch. Duffy pinch hits for the pitcher and grounds out. End of inning, still 3-0 Nats. After getting burned in Game 2, Nats manager will undoubtedly go with Fister to the bitter end.
Top eight, Jean Machi on the mound for SF, Werth strikes out swinging. LaRoche grounds out to Belt unassisted. Desmond fouls out to Pence in right field.
Bottom eight. Top of the SF order. My bad: Nats put Tyler Clippert out on the mound in relief. Blanco swings at yet another bad pitch, lines out. Panik swings at ball four and grounds out. Posey grounds out to short.
Top nine. 3-0 Nats and might as well be 13-0. Due props to Nats, but Giants don't look anything like an experienced team. Belt is the only guy with his brain in gear today.
Harper jacks a HR to right off Machi. 4-0 Nats. Ramos flies out to Blanco in deep center. Cabrera drives long ball to right that Pence flags down. Machi not fooling anybody. Affeldt in to pitch for Giants. Ryan Zimmerman pinch hits, grounds to pitcher.
Last of ninth. Giants: get it over with, go home, have a beer, and think about how to play major league baseball. If I'm Bochy, I read them the riot act over that display of incompetence. Posey, Bumgarner, Ishikawa, Crawford, Machi, Blanco, Panik, Pence....
Storen on to pitch. Sandoval up. Hacking. ahhh, its a four run deficit... Pops a single over the second baseman. Pence doubles over the left fielders head, Sandoval to third. On 2-2 pitch, Belt takes breaking ball for strike 3. One out. Giants now in deep trouble. Crawford flies out to right, Sandoval scores. That's one more than I thought they'd get. Two out, runner on second, 4-1 Nats. Ishikawa up. On 0-1 count he swings at a pitch he cannot do anything with and grounds out to short.
Final score 4-1 Nats. Giants lead best of 5 series, 2-1. Later. and hopefully better.
As a final shot, let me just say that when Travis Ishikawa is your regular left fielder, you have no business winning any post season games. So the Giants are way ahead of the game. But.....