NLDS: Nationals season continues, Giants denied sweep

For the Washington Nationals it was a do or die, win or go home game three in the National League Division Series in San Francisco against the Giants Monday afternoon at AT&T Park. Starting pitcher Doug Fister took the mound against the Giants’ ace Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner last pitched on October 1st in Pittsburgh against the Pirates in the National League Wild Card game. He threw a four-hit complete game shutout, so it’s safe to say that most people probably thought that the Giants had game three of the NLDS and the series practically wrapped up and were ready to head out for the National League Championship series.

Oct 6, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos (40) celebrates with starting pitcher Doug Fister (58) after scoring a run during the seventh inning against the San Francisco Giants in game three of the 2014 NLDS baseball playoff game at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

However, Fister has often been underrated. He also threw a complete game shutout in his last outing on September 26, allowing just three hits and striking out nine batters.

So who won the showdown in this important game three, Madison Bumgarner or Doug Fister? Fister outdueled Bumgarner as the Nationals let the Giants know that they weren’t going down without a fight.

Both pitchers went seven full innings, Fister shutout the Giants during those seven innings allowing four hits, three walks and striking out three. Bumgarner’s stats weren’t bad on the day but he allowed three earned runs on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

The Giants lone run came in the ninth inning off of National’s closer Drew Storen. Storen, who has struggled in the postseason, allowed Pablo Sandoval to single and then gave up a double to Hunter Pence, sending Sandoval to third.

Brandon Belt went down on strikes and Brandon Crawford then hit a sacrifice fly to plate Sandoval. That was all the offense the Giants could muster on a beautiful, sunny after noon in San Francisco as Storen went on to get Travis Ishikawa to ground out to short for the final out of the game.

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The Nationals offense made its presence known in the top of the seventh off of Bumgarner who allowed a single to Ian Desmond, walked Bryce Harper and made a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt from Wilson Ramos that allowed both Desmond and Harper to score while Ramos advanced to second.

On his second pitch to infielder Asdrubal Cabrera, Cabrera singled to left allowing Ramos to score. Bumgarner closed out the inning but that was the end of his day as he gave way to Jean Machi who pitched the 8th inning for San Francisco.

In the top of the ninth inning Harper hit his second homerun of the postseason, a solo shot off of Machi to give the Nationals an insurance run making the score 4-0.

While the Giants did score their one run in the bottom of the ninth it was not enough to get the three game sweep of Washington and the 2014 NLDS will now be going to game four.

Game four will be held in San Francisco on Tuesday night at 9:00 pm ET. It’s still a win or go home situation for the Nationals but today they showed the Giants that there would not be a third Division Series sweep this year (the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Angels were both swept in their respective American League Division Series on Sunday).