The Nationals have won two of the first three in the battle of National League division leaders, but the Giants are the ones coming off a 5-3 win Saturday.
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The Giants stranded him there.
The Nationals added a run against Peavy in the fourth inning when Ryan Zimmermann singled and lumbered home on Danny Espinosa’s double off the wall in left-center.
San Francisco, which is beginning to get healthy, loaded the bases against former Giants reliever Yusmeiro Petit (3-2) with one out in the seventh to bring up Panik.
Bruce Bochy went for the jugular in an early spot and it paid off thanks to a bullpen that held on for the final five innings. They beat the Nationals, 5-3, behind timely at-bats with runners in scoring position.
“I play the game with a lot of emotion, hopefully I can put that vibe out there to give my team a little boost.”
We re in all these games, he said. “I like the mind our group has”. Pagan was out at first base.
He was stranded in scoring position, too.
Williamson drew a walk to load the bases and Nuñez lifted the Buick that had been parked on home plate, lining a two-run double as the crowd squealed in delight. A decent relay would have arrived in plenty of time to cut down Zimmermann, but Gregor Blanco’s throw wasn’t especially strong and Panik’s attempt to the plate went wide. Pence made a mistake in the fifth and got doubled off second base on a fly out to left field.
In another Shakespearian twist, the Giants bullpen performed its most spotless work in recent memory – Derek Law pitched a flawless seventh inning to score the victory, Sergio Romo recorded three outs in the eighth and Santiago Casilla closed out the ninth to record the save, his 23rd of the season.
Leave it to Pence to find a positive even within the negatives. “He’s better as far as I know and they found what it is, so that’s great”, Baker said. “It’s ‘all right, step up your focus and don’t be too insane. Wow, man. That’s a good omen I think”.
Pence’s default mode is to exceed the speed limit, and he acknowledged that the cheers amped him up.
Pence last played on June 1 in Atlanta when he tore his right hamstring running to first base.
The Giants are expected to have Hunter Pence back in the lineup for Game 3 of the series.
But make no mistake, it’s a dogfight now, not only with the one-game-back Dodgers, but also the rest of the National League playoff contenders.
Nationals manager Dusty Baker went to right-hander Blake Treinen, who promptly walked pinch-hitter Buster Posey, and Baker then went to the mound again, opting for another lefty, Sammy Solis, to pitch to Crawford.
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The game began shortly after the Nationals announced the acquisition of closer Mark Melancon from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for a two left-handers, major-leaguer Felipe Rivero and minor-leaguer Taylor Hearn.
