The last time the Giants and Nationals played 18 innings in one day in the nation’s capital, the ending was spectacular, as Brandon Belt’s 18th inning home run lifted San Francisco over Washington in Game 2 of the NLDS en route to the team’s 2014 World Series title.
On Sunday, the two franchises were slated to play 18 innings thanks to a rain-soaked weekend that forced a doubleheader, and they wound up playing more, as the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader offered fans a helping of free baseball.
The 2014 18-inning bout became an indelible memory for an organization that wound up winning its third title in five seasons. When the 20th and final inning of Sunday ended, all it offered San Francisco was a sigh of relief.
With Albert Suarez on the mound for the Giants in the bottom of the 11th, Nationals’ veteran Howie Kendrick launched a dramatic walkoff grand slam to lift Washington to a series-clinching 6-2 victory over San Francisco.
By the time Sunday evening’s contest concluded, the Giants and Nationals had played more than three full games in a span of 24 hours, as Friday’s game was postponed until Sunday, and Saturday’s game was delayed three hours due to rain.
Yet somehow, the Giants’ pitching staff remains in decent shape.
If someone told Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy on Sunday morning that his two starting pitchers, Chris Stratton and Matt Moore, would combine to throw 13.2 innings and allow two earned runs against the Washington Nationals that day, San Francisco’s skipper probably wouldn’t have believed it.
Bochy is an optimistic man with the utmost belief in his players, especially his starters, but he’s also a realist. He knows the Giants are in last-place, and he knows the back end of the team’s rotation has been anything but reliable.
So after San Francisco clinched game one of a split doubleheader against the Nationals behind a career-best outing from Stratton, Bochy knew the Giants were playing on house money, especially against Nationals’ starter Max Scherzer.
Yet thanks to a mammoth upper deck home run off the bat of Giants’ third baseman Pablo Sandoval in the top of the seventh inning, Moore was able to match Scherzer for seven frames, as Moore’s roller coaster ride of a season continued with a trip up the tracks on a night when he finished with nine strikeouts.
On paper, the Giants’ chances of taking the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader were slim, considering the massive advantage the Nationals held on the mound.
With San Francisco trotting out Moore, a left-hander with the worst earned run average among qualifying starters in the National League, and Washington starting Scherzer, who leads the league in strikeouts and ranks second in ERA, the first place Nationals didn’t have any excuses.
But even though Scherzer entered the contest with a shiny 2.22 ERA, Dusty Baker’s club had still lost eight of the 23 starts their ace had made this season. That left a sliver of hope for a Giants club that has been playing much better over the past week, and though it took several innings, the San Francisco offense finally picked up Moore, who turned in one of his best outings of the season.
By the time Moore allowed a solo home run to Nationals’ second baseman Daniel Murphy in the bottom half of the third inning, San Francisco had yet to record a hit against Scherzer, who has built up a strong case to earn his third Cy Young Award this season.
Trailing 1-0, San Francisco did strike back, as Hunter Pence drove in Denard Span with a single in the top of the fourth on a play that forced the Giants to hold their collective breath.
Just over a week after first baseman Brandon Belt landed on the disabled list with a concussion, second baseman Joe Panik took a blow to the head as he attempted to score from second on Pence’s single.
Panik appeared to have a good chance to beat a throw from the outfield to the plate, but center fielder Michael Taylor’s toss pulled catcher Matt Wieters to the third base slide of home plate. As the throw from Taylor came in, it wound up caroming off of Panik’s face and slipping into Wieters’ glove which pressed up against Panik’s face and secured an out.
The odd bounce kept the game tied 1-1 as Moore continued to navigate through Washington’s lineup. In the sixth inning, though, Nationals’ first baseman Ryan Zimmerman clocked another Moore mistake over the left field fence to give his club a lead that felt much more secure than a traditional one-run advantage, especially with the way Scherzer was pitching.
However, in the top of the seventh, Sandoval unleashed a gargantuan swing on a 1-0 fastball from Scherzer, and the ball left the bat at 110 miles per hour. According to Statcast, Sandoval’s solo blast traveled 423 feet. According to the scoreboard, it tied the game at 2-2, and took Moore off the hook for a loss.