October 3, 2014 – Giants 3, Nationals 2 (NLDS Game 1) – Nationals Park

Opening act falls flat (borrowed from front page of today’s Post)

 

Umpires: HP: Laz Diaz. 1B: Vic Carapazza. 2B: Tom Hallion. 3B: Hunter Wendelstedt. LF: Mike Winters. RF: Brian Knight.

Weather: 70 degrees, overcast.

Wind: 2 mph, In from LF.

T: 3:55.

Att: 44,035.

 

In their 2012 playoff debut, the Nats won Game 1 in St. Louis, only to drop the NLDS 3 games to 2. (But enough about that.) We’ll have to hope that they reverse the script in 2014.

We left Westat at 11:00 for the 3:07 start, encountered less traffic than usual, and walked up to Nando’s to eat after finding a working parking meter. The pregame introductions brought the usual sense of anticipation to the ballpark. Only two members of the Giants drew much notice – nice applause for former Nat Michael Morse (who’s recovering from a strained oblique and is inactive for the series), and a much less warm reception for Game 2 starter Tim Hudson.

The game certainly didn’t go Washington’s way, although they had their chances. Strasburg threw hard in his postseason debut, but managed only two strikeouts in 5-plus innings of work, as the Giants hit 8 singles off him but nothing for extra bases. Strasburg did allow the leadoff man to reach base in each of his final four innings (3 hits, plus his only walk). They notched their first run in the fourth, aided by LaRoche’s questionable decision to go after the lead runner on a sacrifice bunt and a later passed ball by Ramos. They struck again in the fifth on two hits and a Hunter Pence stolen base. Matt Williams took Strasburg out after the Giants led off the sixth with two base hits. Jerry Blevins came in to pitch out of that jam, but Giants put up a crucial third run in the seventh after second baseman Joe Panik led off against Craig Stammen with a triple that Denard Span couldn’t quite haul in.

Meanwhile, the Nats battled Giants starter Jake Peavy, running up his pitch count but getting only a pair of two-out walks through the first four innings. Bryce Harper finally managed an infield single to lead off the fifth and bring the sellout crowd back to life, but he was immediately erased when Ramos grounded into a double play. They finally mounted a mild threat an inning later when Nate Schierholz led off with a pinch-hit double. Two fly outs later saw him still on second, but Peavy walked Jayson Werth for the second time to conclude his outing, and lefty specialist Javier Lopez walked LaRoche to load the bases. Giants skipper Bruce Bochy then brought in hard-throwing rookie Hunter Strickland, who fanned Ian Desmond to end the inning.

Down 3-0 in the middle of the seventh, we decided it was time to pull out the rally minions. Sure enough, Harper led off with a tape-measure blast to right off Strickland, and two batters later Asdrubal Cabrera put one into the Nats bullpen to cut the lead to one. They managed one more threat in the eighth on singles by Rendon and LaRoche, but another Desmond strikeout and a fielder’s choice by Harper ended the threat, and the Nats offense for the day.