SAN FRANCISCO -- Eye black and uniform still on, Bryce Harper emerged from a different kind of fog than typically seen in San Francisco. This was the celebratory stuff from a Nationals victory party, and he had earned it, all right.
Harper screamed out in delight as he crossed the plate with Washington ahead at last. After all those extra innings and a subdued cross-country flight, the Nationals had broken through -- with some help from Madison Bumgarner's big blunder.
Doug Fister pitched seven shutout innings and the Nationals capitalized on Bumgarner's one off-target throw, staving off elimination in the NL Division Series with a 4-1 win over the San Francisco Giants on Monday.
"Being able to get that momentum swing to us a little bit is definitely huge," said Harper, who also made a difficult running catch in the gap.
Fister dazzled again in San Francisco, helping the Nationals cut their deficit to 2-1 in the best-of-five series. They ended the Giants' 10-game postseason winning streak that started with Game 5 of the 2012 NL Championship Series against St. Louis.
Washington scored two runs on Bumgarner's throwing error in the seventh inning to end the ace's 22-inning scoreless streak. Harper punctuated the victory with a solo homer in the ninth.
Drew Storen allowed the first two batters to reach in the bottom of the ninth but shook off his postseason struggles, allowing a run in closing it out as Washington forced a Game 4 on Tuesday night (see full recap).
MLB
Cardinals take 2-1 series lead over Dodgers
ST. LOUIS -- Kolten Wong hit a two-run homer to snap a seventh-inning tie, Matt Carpenter went deep for the third straight game and John Lackey lived up to his big-game reputation as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 Monday night to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five NL Division Series.
Facing elimination in St. Louis for the second consecutive postseason, the Dodgers will turn to ace Clayton Kershaw on short rest Tuesday night in Game 4. Shelby Miller makes his first career postseason start for the Cardinals, one win from a fourth straight trip to the NL Championship Series.
The Cardinals finished off Los Angeles in a six-game NLCS last fall, knocking out Kershaw in the fifth inning of a 9-0 blowout in the final game.
Two runners reached against Trevor Rosenthal in the ninth before he earned his second save of the series -- with an assist from the grounds crew on a rainy night.
With two runners on, Rosenthal missed badly on consecutive pitches to Juan Uribe. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and manager Mike Matheny went to the mound, and Matheny motioned toward plate umpire Dale Scott.
The grounds crew was called out to apply a drying agent and rake the mound. Rosenthal threw a pair of practice pitches and found his footing, retiring the next two batters on flies to right for his sixth career postseason save (see full recap).