After rough start, Giants provide dramatic finish in 12-inning win over Nationals
WASHINGTON - After a poor and often dull start to the season, the San Francisco Giants are starting to show some grit and even bravado.
After erasing an early 5-1 deficit to take the lead in the seventh, the Giants wound up having to fight their way back. Ryan Walker, a strike away from finishing things off, gave up a run-scoring bloop in the ninth, then San Francisco outlasted the Nationals through two scoreless extra innings before Matt Chapman, already a standout on the defensive and baserunning sides in the game, singled in Luis Arraez in the 12th inning. Caleb Kilian, who'd worked a scoreless 11th, repeated the process to earn the Giants a 7-6 win, the team's third victory in a row.
"It hasn't always been pretty, but we've been grinding, and we've been trying to find ways to win," Chapman said. "It would have been easy to roll over and let that game get away from us, but we kept just moving forward. That's a credit to this team to have an ability to dig deep."
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Manager Tony Vitello compared the win, in the Giants' first extra-inning game of the year, to a March Madness battle.
"I don't think it was conventional," Vitello said, adding later, "That's just one that I think for our team, it's almost like an adolescent becoming an adult type game. It was big in a lot of ways. A lot of emotions, a lot of decisions and different things like that.
Giants 7, Nationals 6 (12)
San Francisco
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
51
7
16
6
1
11
Adames ss
6
1
1
0
0
2
.262
Arraez 2b
6
2
2
0
0
0
.321
Chapman 3b
6
1
2
1
0
0
.294
Devers 1b
6
0
1
1
0
1
.212
Schmitt dh
6
0
2
1
0
2
.317
Lee rf
6
1
2
0
0
1
.253
Ramos lf
5
2
3
2
1
1
.257
Gilbert cf
5
0
2
1
0
1
.250
Bailey c
4
0
1
0
0
3
.137
c-Susac ph-c
1
0
0
0
0
0
.500
Washington
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
44
6
10
6
5
8
Wood rf
3
3
1
2
2
1
.256
García 1b
3
0
1
2
0
0
.231
a-Mead ph-1b
3
0
0
0
0
0
.200
Tena dh
2
0
1
1
1
0
.364
b-House ph-dh
2
0
1
1
0
1
.234
1-Wiemer pr-dh
1
0
0
0
0
1
.341
Abrams ss
5
0
0
0
1
1
.338
Young cf
6
0
2
0
0
0
.254
Lile lf
6
0
2
0
0
2
.283
Nuñez 2b
4
1
0
0
0
1
.177
Vivas 3b
4
1
1
0
1
0
.310
Millas c
5
1
1
0
0
1
.182
San Francisco
012
002
100
001_7
16
1
Washington
140
000
001
000_6
10
2
a-popped out for García in the 7th. b-struck out for Tena in the 7th. c-flied out for Bailey in the 11th.
1-ran for House in the 10th.
E: Adames (3), Vivas (2), Lile (1). LOB: San Francisco 12, Washington 12. 2B: Ramos (3), Schmitt (6), Lile (6), Millas (2), Vivas (2). HR: Ramos (2), off Parker; Wood (7), off Houser. RBIs: Gilbert (2), Schmitt (7), Ramos 2 (13), Devers (8), Chapman (12), Wood 2 (18), García 2 (12), Tena (6), House (9). S_Nuñez.
Runners left in scoring position: San Francisco 6 (Gilbert, Adames, Ramos, Lee, Arraez, Devers); Washington 6 (Wiemer, Young, Lile, Wood, Vivas 2). RISP: San Francisco 4 for 18; Washington 4 for 19.
Runners moved up: Chapman, Millas. GIDP_Devers.
DP: Washington 1 (Nuñez, García).
San Francisco
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
Houser
5
2-3
7
5
4
2
1
88
5.40
Borucki
1-3
0
0
0
0
1
6
6.75
Miller, H, 1
1
0
0
0
0
2
15
5.14
Gage, H, 2
1
0
0
0
0
0
6
1.93
Walker, BS, 1-2
2
3
1
1
2
2
26
4.00
Kilian, W, 1-0
2
0
0
0
1
2
17
0.90
Washington
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
Cavalli
4
7
3
1
0
5
92
4.12
Parker
3
5
3
3
0
2
53
5.40
Varland
1
2
0
0
0
2
23
3.52
Lovelady
2
0
0
0
1
2
23
3.00
Pérez, L, 1-2
2
2
1
0
0
0
22
5.91
Inherited runners-scored: Borucki 1-0. IBB: off Walker (Wood), off Lovelady (Ramos), off Walker (Abrams), off Kilian (Wood). HBP: Houser (Wood). WP: Parker.
Umpires: Home, Brennan Miller; First, Ryan Wills; Second, Chris Conroy; Third, Jen Pawol.
T: 3:32. A: 35,527 (41,376).
"That was one where the baseball gods, it didn't feel like they were going to let us lose today, because there were several moments where we could have."
The Giants steadily worked back from their early four-run deficit, then Heliot Ramos, emerging from his early-season funk, banged his second homer in two days to tie things up in the sixth. Rafael Devers' RBI single gave the Giants the lead the next inning.
In the ninth, Walker gave up a leadoff double to Jorbit Vivas, who then sprinted to third on a flyball. After an intentional walk to James Wood, Walker got Curtis Mead to hit a chopper to third and Chapman winged a throw home to erase Vivas, a terrific play - "Unbelievable," Walker said - but Brady House drove in Wood with a two-strike bloop to center.
Drew Gilbert threw Mead out at third on the play to end the inning; the Giants challenged, contending Mead was out before Vivas reached the plate, but the call on the field stood.
"I was super frustrated with the results of the ninth," Walker said. "A hit like that is just so frustrating."
Richard Lovelady held the Giants scoreless in the 10th. With two outs and Devers the placed runner at second, Lovelady walked Ramos intentionally before getting Gilbert to pop up. Lovelady, acquired two days earlier from the Mets, also had worked a scoreless ninth.
In the bottom of the 10th, Walker redeemed himself. "I was ready to go," he said. "Not necessarily for my sake, but for the team's sake, to keep us in it."
It was dicey, but Walker held his nerve. The Nationals loaded the bases with no outs, but Walker then struck out Daylen Lile and Nasim Nuñez. Vivas then hit a grounder that Willy Adames scooped up at short and took on a little adventure: He tried to outrace Jacob Young to second base and failed, then threw with a slightly wild motion over the runner to just barely get Vivas at first
"I'll tell you what two words (Adames) said to describe it when he was by the bat rack, but there's a TV camera right here," Vitello said with a smile. "To have the feel to do that - I mean, you would never practice that. You would never talk about that, and I don't know that you would even kind of draft that play up in your mind."
Ramos promised his homer in the series opener Friday night would be just the start of big things. Saturday, he lined a two-run homer down the left-field line, a two-run shot, and practically danced his way around the bases, banging his chest, running with his knees high, signaling to teammates. He finished with three hits, lifting his average to .257. He hadn't started the final two games in Cincinnati after putting up a .226 mark through the first 17 games.
Ramos' spring bloom was the most flamboyant part of the Giants' day, but some less obvious moments were important: Chapman did some fine baserunning in the third to score on Casey Schmitt's double, blowing through a stop sign when he saw Lile bobble the ball slightly along the left-field line, and Patrick Bailey halted a potential Nationals rally in the third inning with a stylish backpick that erased Lile from third.
"That's a play right there that might go unnoticed, but that play is probably the momentum stopper for them," starter Adrian Houser said. "Especially after a big inning, they scored five, and then come back out with a guy on third with one out - to be able to do that right there was huge. That was a big turning point."
Houser comes in for some praise, despite allowing five runs in the first two innings. He settled in after Bailey's backpick, retiring nine of the next 10 before Millas' two-out double in the sixth. Lefty specialist Ryan Borucki came in to face Wood, who'd homered in the first, and struck him out with a slider.
San Francisco's three-game winning streak matches the team's season high. The Giants will go for the sweep against the Nationals on Sunday with lefty Robbie Ray (2.42 ERA) matching up against right-hander Miles Mikolas (11.49).
"We put ourselves in a better spot these last couple games," Chapman said, "and we have an opportunity to go out there and win a game tomorrow, and that would put us 5-4 on the road trip."
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This story was originally published April 18, 2026 at 7:19 PM.