NLDS Game 3, Nationals vs Giants final score: Nationals beat Giants 4-1, keep season alive

1. 40. 4. 90. Final

The Washington Nationals beat the San Francisco Giants 4-1 in Game 3 of the NLDS and kept their playoff hopes alive.

All the Washington Nationals had to do to keep their season alive on Monday was to beat Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants, on the road, in front of some of the most rabid fans in baseball at AT&T Park. Nothing to it, right?

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With afternoon shadows creeping towards home plate and the score tied at 0-0 in the top of the 7th inning, you could sense the excitement from Giants’ fans. “This is what our team does,” they were thinking. “Here comes another classic Giants’ victory, a low-scoring game won in the late innings. I wonder who will get the big hit tonight.”

But then something weird happened. The Nationals got runners on base against Bumgarner. “This isn’t part of the plan,” those same fans thought to themselves. Then, in a shocking turn of events, it was a member of the Giants who made the big mistake and not the other way around.

With runners on first and second, Nationals’ catcher Wilson Ramos put a sacrifice bunt down the first base line. Bumgarner fielded it, tried to cut down the lead runner at third, and fired an errant throw down the left field line. Two runs scored for the Nationals.

The Nationals would then tack on two more runs on an RBI single from Asdrubal Cabrera and a solo home run from Bryce Harper.

Washington asked a lot of Doug Fister in this game, putting him out there to stare down the Giants’ lineup with Bumgarner on the other side of things. Fister rose to the challenge, going seven shutout innings before handing things over to the bullpen. Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen worked the final two innings, though Storen got himself into some trouble in the 9th before shutting things down.

Of all the stud pitchers who haven’t stepped up in the playoffs, Fister proved to be one guy who was up to the task in a big spot.

So it is that the Nationals extend things by one game, hoping to pull off the comeback after being behind 2-0 in the series.

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