Giants beat Nationals in 18-inning thriller
WASHINGTON – Brandon Belt, Yusmeiro Petit and the rest of the San Francisco Giants did what they do so well in October: They never give in, never give up, and win. Simple as that. No matter what it takes — or how long.
Even 18 innings.
On and on and on the Giants and Nationals played Saturday, from afternoon until just past midnight, when Belt’s homer off Tanner Roark leading off the 18th lifted San Francisco to its 10th consecutive postseason victory, edging Washington 2-1 for a 2-0 lead in their N.L. Division Series.
“That’s how we do it. On paper, it might not be the flashiest thing, compared to a lot of teams. But I like this group against anybody in baseball,” said Tim Hudson, who started for the Giants and went 7 1/3 innings, leaving hours before the game ended. “Who’d have thought we’d have came here and won the first two? Everybody in America probably didn’t think we had a shot. But everybody in this locker room knew that we did.”
The teams tied the mark for most innings in a postseason game and set a time record at 6 hours, 23 minutes. They combined to use 17 pitchers and 24 position players.
“After a while,” Giants rookie Joe Panik said, “every inning just kind of ran into the next.”
Said Craig Stammen, one of eight relievers used by the Nationals after starter Jordan Zimmerman was yanked while ahead 1-0 with two outs in the ninth after walking Panik: “The two worst things in baseball are boredom and frustration, and we were battling both of those tonight.”
The Giants can close out the best-of-five NLDS at home Monday in Game 3, with Madison Bumgarner – who tossed a shutout against Pittsburgh in the wild-card game – facing Doug Fister.
Down to their final out Saturday, the Giants tied it in the ninth on Pablo Sandoval’s RBI double off Drew Storen – the closer who blew a two-out ninth-inning lead in Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS against St. Louis.
Petit entered in the 12th and threw six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out seven, to earn the win.
“I was trying to get as much as I could out of him,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
Hunter Strickland got the save with a scoreless 18th.
By then, the temperature was in the low 50s.
Roark came on in the 17th. An inning later, he threw a 94 mph fastball on a full count to Belt. When Belt drove the ball into the second deck beyond right field, he dropped his bat and admired the shot as the Nationals Park crowd fell silent. When Belt got to the dugout, teammates slapped him on his head.
“I just wanted to get on base for the guys behind me – ‘Get ‘em on, get ‘em over and get ‘em in.’ Fortunately, I put a good enough swing on it,” Belt said.
Only one other postseason game in baseball history lasted 18 innings – when the Astros beat the Braves in a 2005 NLDS game that Hudson started for Atlanta. That one held the previous record for most time, at 5:50.