Pitcher's Duel Turns into Walkoff Celebration

            The San Francisco Giants had to rely on some late inning heroics to beat Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.

            In the bottom of the 10^th inning Pablo Sandoval hit a walkoff homerun to give the Giants a 4-2 win over the Nationals and their sixth walkoff of the year.

            Tuesday night’s game featured two of baseball’s best pitchers in Matt Cain and Stephen Strasburg.

            Washington came out swinging in the first inning against Cain, as they jumped out to an early two run lead. Ryan Zimmerman doubled in Nationals’ leadoff hitter Denard Span. Later in the in the first, Ian Desmond doubled in Ryan Zimmerman with two outs.

            Cain settled down after some early struggles, and put together a very strong performance. He went seven strong innings and gave up only two runs on four hits.

            Stephen Strasburg, Cain’s counterpart, pitched fantastically on Tuesday. He allowed one earned run on an Angel Pagan single that scored Gregor Blanco in the second inning. Strasburg had complete command of all of his pitches and he dealt seven solid innings.

            Strasburg was in position for the win with Nationals closer, Rafael Soriano, on the mound and a 2-1 lead. Soriano had Gregor Blanco down 0-2 in the count with Andres Torres on first base, but Blanco battled and tripled over the head of Bryce Harper.

            Jeremy Affeldt came in to pitch the 10^th inning and he retired the Nationals hitters in order to set up a Hollywood ending.

            Marco Scutaro, who extended his hit streak to 19 games tonight, singled in the 10^th for his second hit of the game. Pablo Sandoval came up to the plate and hit a challenge fastball out to of the ballpark to send the fans in San Francisco home happy.

            It was pure “Pandamonium” Tuesday night at AT&T Park as the men in orange and black beat the Nationals 4-2. The Giants go for the sweep tomorrow at 12:45.