San Francisco Giants vs. Washington Nationals Game 1: Live Score and Highlights

FINAL SCORE: Giants 3 - 2 Nationals; San Francisco leads NLDS 1-0

The San Francisco Giants rode a strong outing from Jake Peavy (5.2 IP, two H, three BB, three K, zero R) to steal Game 1 of the NLDS from the Washington Nationals. It was the Giants' ninth consecutive postseason victory going back to their 2012 title run. 

The fiery 33-year-old didn't allow a hit through four innings, as the Giants jumped out to a 2-0 lead on RBI singles by Joe Panik (2-for-5) and Brandon Belt (2-for-4). They tacked on a third run—which proved to be the game-winner—in the seventh, when Buster Posey (1-for-4) reached on a single with the infield drawn in. 

Twenty-six-year-old Stephen Strasburg (5.0 IP, eight H, one BB, two K, two R, one ER), making his postseason debut, came out throwing his typical gas. But the big right-hander was all over the plate for much of the evening. It's not so much that the Giants knocked him around as much as they worked numerous counts, fouling off two-strike offerings and finding every hole in the Nats defense—all eight hits off Strasburg were singles.

The Giants offense was alive and well following their routing of the Pirates in the Wild Card Game. All eight position players recorded a hit, and three delivered multi-hit games. Brandon Crawford, who, in the play-in game became the first shortstop in postseason history to hit a grand slam, went 3-for-4 on the day. 

Rookie reliever Hunter Strickland came on in relief in the home half of the sixth after Javier Lopez walked the only batter he faced to load the bases.

Strickland swiftly struck out Ian Desmond to escape the jam, touching triple digits. But in the bottom of the seventh, Bryce Harper (2-for-4), who broke up Peavy's no-hitter leading off the fifth, launched a Strickland fastball into the third tier at Nationals Park. Two batters later, Asdrubal Cabrera (1-for-4) touched up Strickand to cut the lead to 3-2.

The San Francisco pen shut the door over the final 2.1 innings, however. Washington failed to drive in the tying run from second in the bottom of the eighth, and Santiago Casilla took over in the ninth, recording three quick outs for the save. 

The Nats looked capable of producing a little magic in the final frames, but their bats proved to be ice cold (six total hits) after a four-day layoff following their season finale on Sunday. They'll look to bounce back on Saturday night in the nation's capital when they'll send out Jordan Zimmermann (14-5, 2.66 ERA)—who tossed the organization's first no-hitter in his previous start—to take on 39-year-old Tim Hudson (9-13, 3.57 ERA). 

Make sure you keep it locked right here on Bleacher Report tomorrow afternoon for updates and lineups, and join us 15 minutes prior to the first pitch (5:37 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1) when we kick off our live coverage of Game 2 of the Giants-Nationals NLDS.

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