NLDS Game 4, Nationals vs Giants final score: Giants win 3-2, advance to NLCS
By Hayden Kane
40. 2. 90. Final. 3
The San Francisco Giants scratched out enough ugly offense and pitched well enough to defeat the Washington Nationals 3-2 to advance to the NLCS for a showdown with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Another season, and another year that either the San Francisco Giants or St. Louis Cardinals will represent the National League in the World Series.
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Ask a semi-serious baseball fan, and they might note that the Giants tend to find ways to win even though it makes no sense how they win. If that is true, then this is the penultimate Giants’ victory. It just so happens to also be the game that ended the season for the 96-win Washington Nationals.
The Giants scored their three runs in this game on a bases-loaded walk, a ground ball to first base, and a wild pitch. They literally did not hit a ball out of the infield to score their runs. They literally did not hit a ball, period, to score two of those runs.
But if you know the Giants, you know they can make those runs stand up. They did just that, with Ryan Vogelsong delivering a solid start and then handing the ball to a stellar Giants’ bullpen that was once again up to the task.
The only hiccup from the Giants’ bullpen came when Bryce Harper did this to a baseball.
Even with that solo home run, however, the Giants just seem to specialize in winning close games. That might something to do with their ability to come up with plays like this catch from Hunter Pence.
The Nationals can point to a lack of offense as the thing that did them in. Any batter not named Bryce Harper simply could not get anything going in this series. That lack of offense gave them a razor-thin margin for error, leaving them vulnerable against a gutsy team like the Giants.
Find a way to win. That’s what the Giants do, that’s what they did again, and now they have earned a chance to face the St. Louis Cardinals for a berth in the 2014 World Series.
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