SAN FRANCISCO — The Washington Nationals took advantage of a two-run throwing error by San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner to break a scoreless tie in the seventh inning en route to a series-extending, 4-1 victory Monday afternoon.
The win keeps Washington, which lost consecutive home games Friday and Saturday, alive in the best-of-five series. Game 4 scheduled for Tuesday at AT&T Park.
The Nationals will send left-hander Gio Gonzalez to the mound in the elimination game. The Giants will counter with right-hander Ryan Vogelsong.
Bumgarner and Nationals right-hander Doug Fister were matched in a scoreless duel before Washington shortstop Ian Desmond opened the decisive seventh inning with a single to left field.
Bumgarner then pitched carefully to slugging Nationals left fielder Bryce Harper, who walked on five pitches to put two aboard.
Catcher Wilson Ramos then fell behind 1-2 in the count, but Nationals manager Matt Williams called upon him to bunt nonetheless, and he came through.
Ramos got one down to the right of the mound, and instead of going to first base for the sure out, Bumgarner attempted to nail Desmond at third. The throw was late, and when Desmond slid into a lunging Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval, the ball sailed past and into the Giants’ bullpen.
As Desmond was regaining his feet and heading home with the first run of the game, San Francisco left fielder Travis Ishikawa, a recently converted first baseman, was slow to back up the play, then didn’t see the ball rolling away until it was by him.
Ishikawa turned and chased it toward the left field fence, which allowed Harper to score all the way from first base, making it 2-0.
Second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a single to left, and Nationals third base coach Bob Henley chose to challenge Ishikawa’s arm despite the fact Ramos, a burly catcher, was the runner and there were no outs. Ishikawa’s accurate throw reached catcher Buster Posey a split-second late, allowing Ramos to score for a 3-0 lead.
That was easily enough run support for Fister and Nationals relievers Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen.
Having almost identical success against the Giants as he enjoyed in his first two career head-to-heads, Fister worked the first seven innings, shutting out San Francisco on four hits. The native of the Northern California town of Merced walked three and struck out three.
Fister also pitched seven scoreless innings against the Giants at AT&T Park in June in a 2-1 Nationals win.
He allowed one run in seven innings in his only other matchup with the Giants, that coming in Game 2 of the 2012 World Series for the Detroit Tigers. The Giants won that game 2-0.
Every time Fister faced San Francisco, he went against Bumgarner.
The Giants’ biggest threat against Fister came in the second inning, when the right-hander issued two of his three walks after an inning-opening single by Sandoval.
With the bases loaded and facing Bumgarner, who belted two grand slams this season, Fister struck out the opposing pitcher to end the threat.
Clippard worked a 1-2-3 eighth before Storen, who blew a save Saturday in Washington’s 18-inning loss, struggled to close the door on the Giants.
Sandoval led off the ninth with a single and took third on a double by right fielder Hunter Pence.
Storen then settled down, striking out first baseman Brandon Belt before giving up a sacrifice fly to shortstop Brandon Crawford, scoring Sandoval.
Ishikawa grounded to shortstop to end the game.