Late last night, while most reasonable human beings were sleeping, the San Francisco Giants held off the Washington Nationals by a score of 3-2 to put the NLDS on ice and advance to the National League Championship Series.
Waiting there will be the St. Louis Cardinals who punched their ticket earlier in the day, it'll be a rematch of the 2012 NLCS. In fact, both franchises have become the model for excellence in the National League, with each team alternating World Series appearances from 2010-2013 (Giants, Cardinals, Giants, Cardinals, this year).
So how did the actual game go? Assuming you're not from the nation's capital, it was pretty good. The theme throughout the series has been pitching, and tonight was no different. In the midst of a duel largely waged by the bullpens, the defensive gem of the night came from Giants right fielder Hunter Pence who made this leaping catch at the wall to save a triple, help preserve a one run San Fran lead, and (in the process) cause a fan to totally lose his shit:
1.
That allowed the Giants to exit the sixth inning still on top. But then, in the top of the seventh, Bryce Harper (probably the only offensive bright spot for Washington in the series) hit a moonshot that splashed down in McCovey Cove, tying the game:
2.
This tie lasted for all of roughly 20 minutes, when the collars of the Nats bullpen finally got too tight, working their way into a bases loaded jam before reliever Aaron Barrett uncorked a wild pitch that turned out to be the game-winning/series-clinching run.
3.
Even though the game was already lost (though nobody knew it yet) the Nationals decided to put Pablo Sandoval on after the wild pitch. Easy enough, we would think. But Barrett launched the intentional ball over the catcher's head, resulting in a second wild pitch that ended up being so bad it was good as backstop Wilson Ramos tracked it down and threw out Buster Posey at the plate.
Still, in the end the Nationals couldn't mount a comeback. And with the final pitch of the game came a conclusion to MLB's division series round which, frankly, didn't turn out great as two teams were swept and not a single series reached the maximum amount of five games.
Here's hoping for better during the championship rounds. Unless of course, you hate baseball. In which case it's impressive that you read this whole thing.
[Videos via MLB.com]
