Tonight at 9 p.m. ET, the Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants continue their best-of-five National League Division Series with Game 4 action live from AT&T Park in San Francisco. The game can be live streamed for free here. Washington fans can hear all of the action on WFED 1500 while San Francisco fans can do the same on KNBR 680.
Washington looks to avoid elimination for the second straight night and force a deciding Game 5 at home on Thursday while San Francisco hopes to clinch an appearance in the NLCS for the third time in five years -- with the last two seeing them go on to win the World Series in 2010 and 2012.
The home team has lost every game of this series so far as the Giants defeated the Nationals 3-2 on Friday in Game 1 and 2-1 in 18 innings on Saturday in Game 2 in Washington, D.C. while the Nationals picked up a 4-1 triumph on Monday night to stave off elimination at AT&T Park.
The Nationals turn to Gio Gonzalez (10-10, 3.57 ERA in 2014 regular season) with their campaign on the line while the Giants hope that Ryan Vogelsong (8-13, 4.00) will punch their ticket to the NLDS.
Gonzalez has started just two postseason games, both in 2012 where he went is 0-0 with a 4.50 ERA, while Vogelsong is 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA in his postseason career -- all during the Giants' 2012 World Series run.
Gonzalez, having walked 11 batters in 10 innings in the team's disappointing NLDS loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012, will try to keep his emotions in check.
[There's] definitely going to be some emotion," Gonzalez, who pitched well down the stretch this season, said via MLB.com. "There's going to be some excitement. In my career and my time playing, I definitely want to stay as much composed and relaxed as possible."
Vogelsong is coming in off of a rough September where he went 0-4 with a 5.53 ERA.
"Even at the end of the season, I would be rolling along in the game and then just kind of lose it," Vogelsong told MLB.com. "So, I mean, it's there. I just need to be more focused at times and more concentrated on making a good pitch."
Vogelsong will look to stifle the Nationals' momentum after they took advantage of a costly error by Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, who had his 22-inning playoffs scoring streak snapped, in Game 3 and ended up winning the game.
Bryce Harper slugged his third-career postseason homer in the game to add insurance, though he is just 3-for-14 (.214) in the series with two homers and two RBI. Washington's bats have been mostly quiet this series, but infielder Anthony Rendon is hitting .467 (7-for-15) with an RBI.
For San Francisco, leadoff hitter Gregor Blanco is just 1-for-14 in the series and hitless in his last 10 at-bats, leading to manager Bruce Bochy contemplating putting outfielder Hunter Pence (4-for-15, .267) in the leadoff spot.
As usual in October, Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval has been solid and he extended his franchise-record postseason hitting streak to 14 games Monday night. Sandoval is 4-for-16 (.250) with a double and two RBI thus far.
The Nationals look to force a Game 5 by sending the series back to the nation's capital while the Giants hope to become the first team to win at home in the series and punch their ticket to the NLCS when these two teams take the field tonight at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
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