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| Madison Bumgarner throws Nationals a bone(-headed gift) in Game 3 | Madison Bumgarner throws Nationals a bone(-headed gift) in Game 3 |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| SAN FRANCISCO — You never want to wake up a sleeping giant, even if you are the Giants. | SAN FRANCISCO — You never want to wake up a sleeping giant, even if you are the Giants. |
| Ignited by a two-run throwing error by San Francisco ace left-hander Madison Bumgarner, then buoyed by both a sliding catch in left field and a titanic home run over the right field bleacher by Bryce Harper, the Washington Nationals battered their way back into this National League Division Series on Monday afternoon with a 4-1 win at AT&T Park. | Ignited by a two-run throwing error by San Francisco ace left-hander Madison Bumgarner, then buoyed by both a sliding catch in left field and a titanic home run over the right field bleacher by Bryce Harper, the Washington Nationals battered their way back into this National League Division Series on Monday afternoon with a 4-1 win at AT&T Park. |
| Where it will lead is unknown, but this virtually defined what a momentum-turning playoff game feels like. The Nats’ gritty, aggressive Doug Fister won with seven scoreless inning of head-to-head dueling with Bumgarner, who has one of the game’s best October records. Now Gio Gonzalez, a southpaw who has been dominant in his last two starts, faces Ryan Vogelsong of the Giants in Tuesday night’s Game 4, a matchup that has long been assumed to favor the Nationals. | |
| Ian Desmond’s single into left field to start the seventh inning of a scoreless game on a gorgeous afternoon should have been a small enough annoyance for Bumgarner to ignore, especially coming after his 9-0 shutout of Pittsburgh in the wild-card game last week. Even his subsequent walk to Harper could have been viewed merely as judicious pitching, given that Harper hit a 440-foot homer earlier in this series. | Ian Desmond’s single into left field to start the seventh inning of a scoreless game on a gorgeous afternoon should have been a small enough annoyance for Bumgarner to ignore, especially coming after his 9-0 shutout of Pittsburgh in the wild-card game last week. Even his subsequent walk to Harper could have been viewed merely as judicious pitching, given that Harper hit a 440-foot homer earlier in this series. |
| But when he picked up a no-out sacrifice bunt attempt by Wilson Ramos, a large catcher with a serious history of hamstring injuries, Bumgarner made an instantaneous decision — a huge gaffe perpetrated in an instant — that may have swung the direction of this series. | But when he picked up a no-out sacrifice bunt attempt by Wilson Ramos, a large catcher with a serious history of hamstring injuries, Bumgarner made an instantaneous decision — a huge gaffe perpetrated in an instant — that may have swung the direction of this series. |
| Bumgarner’s wild peg to third would not have beaten the speedy Desmond. But it also pulled Pablo Sandoval off the bag and left him doing pointless splits as the ball rolled deep into the Giants’ scattering bullpen down the left field line. The ball rolled so far that, even though Desmond and Harper hesitated to figure out where it was, both scored while Ramos took second. | Bumgarner’s wild peg to third would not have beaten the speedy Desmond. But it also pulled Pablo Sandoval off the bag and left him doing pointless splits as the ball rolled deep into the Giants’ scattering bullpen down the left field line. The ball rolled so far that, even though Desmond and Harper hesitated to figure out where it was, both scored while Ramos took second. |
| Until Bumgarner’s egregiously unwise error, Washington was in a catatonic scoring slump: scoreless for its last 21 innings. Yet as soon as they scored — on a gift — for that 2-0 lead, they immediately started to hit rockets around AT&T Park. Asdrubal Cabrera followed Bumgarner’s error with an RBI single. In addition to Harper’s blast, other Nats sent outfielders scurrying deep. The slump may be over. | Until Bumgarner’s egregiously unwise error, Washington was in a catatonic scoring slump: scoreless for its last 21 innings. Yet as soon as they scored — on a gift — for that 2-0 lead, they immediately started to hit rockets around AT&T Park. Asdrubal Cabrera followed Bumgarner’s error with an RBI single. In addition to Harper’s blast, other Nats sent outfielders scurrying deep. The slump may be over. |
| As Harper batted in the ninth, Giants fans began chanting, “What’s wrong with Harper?” Answer: “He’s a bum.” Just as the chant behind home plate reached its conclusion a second time, there was an enormous “crack” followed by a mammoth, towering home run. The fans fell silence except for one, who couldn’t help himself and just said, “Whoa!” | As Harper batted in the ninth, Giants fans began chanting, “What’s wrong with Harper?” Answer: “He’s a bum.” Just as the chant behind home plate reached its conclusion a second time, there was an enormous “crack” followed by a mammoth, towering home run. The fans fell silence except for one, who couldn’t help himself and just said, “Whoa!” |
| What of the Giants? Perhaps they will notice that they have scored just six runs, five of them earned, in 36 innings. That’s a 1.25 ERA for the Nats’ staff. Is the slump on the other foot? There is no more important factor to watch in the postseason than which dugout has the cold bats. | What of the Giants? Perhaps they will notice that they have scored just six runs, five of them earned, in 36 innings. That’s a 1.25 ERA for the Nats’ staff. Is the slump on the other foot? There is no more important factor to watch in the postseason than which dugout has the cold bats. |
| In October, a terrible creature, universally feared but seldom defeated, attacks talented but increasingly nervous teams as one scoreless inning after another strangles their hopes of playoff glory. Call it the Pressure Monster or the Tension Tapeworm. Postseason playoff watchers have seen it countless times but can count on their fingers the teams that escaped. | In October, a terrible creature, universally feared but seldom defeated, attacks talented but increasingly nervous teams as one scoreless inning after another strangles their hopes of playoff glory. Call it the Pressure Monster or the Tension Tapeworm. Postseason playoff watchers have seen it countless times but can count on their fingers the teams that escaped. |
| To get out of the clutches of that 000-000-000-000-000-000-000 Thing — and that’s exactly what the Washington Nationals’ linescore looked like from the third inning of Game 2 until the seventh inning Monday — a team almost always needs help. From your psychiatrist. From a ball lost in the sun. From a pebble in front of third base like the one that won the 1924 World Series for the Senators. From a third strike a catcher drops to start a rally. | To get out of the clutches of that 000-000-000-000-000-000-000 Thing — and that’s exactly what the Washington Nationals’ linescore looked like from the third inning of Game 2 until the seventh inning Monday — a team almost always needs help. From your psychiatrist. From a ball lost in the sun. From a pebble in front of third base like the one that won the 1924 World Series for the Senators. From a third strike a catcher drops to start a rally. |
| But the last place the Nats expected to get surcease, pity, aid in distress or a gawdawful is-my-brain-full-of-rocks fundamental blunder was from the biggest, baddest put-your-pretty-little-96-win-season-in-the-grave pitcher on the Giants’ staff: Madison Your Worst Nightmare Bumgarner. | But the last place the Nats expected to get surcease, pity, aid in distress or a gawdawful is-my-brain-full-of-rocks fundamental blunder was from the biggest, baddest put-your-pretty-little-96-win-season-in-the-grave pitcher on the Giants’ staff: Madison Your Worst Nightmare Bumgarner. |
| Nonetheless, in a split second, Bumgarner drove the thin edge of a potentially mighty wedge into San Francisco’s hopes of stampeding the nervous, offensively paralyzed Nats into a sweep and a winter of disturbing comparisons to 2012. | Nonetheless, in a split second, Bumgarner drove the thin edge of a potentially mighty wedge into San Francisco’s hopes of stampeding the nervous, offensively paralyzed Nats into a sweep and a winter of disturbing comparisons to 2012. |
| In a general’s dreams of battle, the hope is not simply for your enemy to fail, to show weakness, but to reveal the crucial chink in its armor at the point where it was supposed to be strongest, almost invulnerable. | |
| For the Giants, that strength was fundamental execution of basic plays and, just as important, a sense of near-perfect judgment about when to press for an advantage in pressure situation and when to play the house percentages. You would choke. Then they would choke you. | |
| And that’s how it had gone in the first two games of this series. The Nats aided the Giants to bits and pieces of all three of their runs in a 3-2 loss in Game 1. | |
| And in Game 2, they held a 1-0 lead with two outs in the ninth inning when Manager Matt Williams did whatever that thing was that he did that I can barely remember anymore because I can’t stop thinking about Bumgarner’s throw. | |
| Will the Giants be able to forget it? The Nats, with Giant help, have moved on from their haunting moment and loss. Will San Francisco? Of such questions is October made. | Will the Giants be able to forget it? The Nats, with Giant help, have moved on from their haunting moment and loss. Will San Francisco? Of such questions is October made. |
| For more by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/boswell. | For more by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/boswell. |