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SF GIANTS BIOGRAPHY

SF GIANTS

The Giants’ 10-game postseason win streak could have ended so many ways. The permutations in baseball are almost endless. Surely a bad decision on the mound by Madison Bumgarner was not high on anyone’s list of possibilities.

That is how it went down at AT&T Park in Monday’s 4-1 loss to the Nationals in Game 3 of their Division Series.

Washington had not scored in 21 consecutive innings when it turned a bunt and a wild throw by Madison Bumgarner into a three-run seventh inning, which ended Bumgarner’s postseason shutout streak at 22 innings, the second-longest in franchise history.

Bryce Harper added a homer against Jean Machi in the ninth. Brandon Crawford’s ninth-inning sacrifice fly was too little, too late, and the series continues.

Doug Fister threw seven shutout innings for the win, just he as he did at AT&T Park in June.

The Giants still lead it two games to one, but they lost their opportunity to finish the top-seeded team in the National League with their hoss on the mound.

Ryan Vogelsong faces Gio Gonzalez in Game 4, with Jake Peavy and Stephen Strasburg set for a Game 1 rematch if the series goes to a fifth game in Washington on Thursday.

Zero for zero, Bumgarner and Fister turned this game into a breath-stealing continuation of all those extra innings from Game 2. The pressure was even greater for Washington this time because a loss meant the end of its season.

The game was scoreless in the sixth inning when afternoon shadows crept over the plate, toughening an already-daunting task for the hitters.

Bumgarner blinked first with, of all things, a bad throw to a badly conceived and executed throw to third base.

After Ian Desmond singled and Harper walked to start the seventh, Wilson Ramos bunted to the right side. With little chance to get an out at third, Bumgarner went there anyway and threw the ball away.

Both runners scored as the ball caromed off a fence and ricocheted past left fielder Travis Ishikawa, who had to chase it past the bullpen mound.

Asdrubal Cabrera singled home Ramos for a 3-0 lead.

Bumgarner vs. Fister was a rematch of Game 2 of the 2012 World Series, a 2-0 victory for the Giants in which Fister took a line drive off his head yet kept pitching.

Fister allowed one run in six innings in that game. Bumgrner blanked the Tigers for seven innings.

That started a postseason shutout streak for Bumgarner that grew to 16 innings when he blanked the Pirates in the wild-card game, the fourth-longest in franchise history.

With a second-inning Ian Desmond groundball, Bumgarner caught Matt Cain (17 1/3 innings) for the third-longest streak. With a scoreless third, Bumgarner matched Art Nehf for the second-longest streak (19 innings), but had to get a big out.

Jayson Werth grounded out to strand two.

Christy Mathewson owns the franchise record of 28 consecutive shutout innings – safe again.

The Giants had the first big chance, in the second, when Pablo Sandoval hit a leadoff single and Fister walked Brandon Belt and Travis Ishikawa to load the bases.

Sandoval extended his franchise-record postseason hit streak to 14 games, three short of the all-time record.

Bumgarner came to the plate, two grand slams on his 2014 resume. He struck out to strand three. Fister escaped, but had thrown 43 pitches in two innings.