Belt’s blast in 18th inning lifts Giants over Nats in marathon

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Brandon Belt homered off Tanner Roark in the 18th inning, lifting the San Francisco Giants to their 10th consecutive postseason victory, edging Washington 2-1 on Saturday night for a 2-0 lead in the NL Division Series.

It tied the mark for most innings in a postseason game and set a time record at 6 hours, 23 minutes,

Down to their final out in the ninth, the wild-card Giants tied it on Pablo Sandoval’s RBI double, then saw Nationals manager Matt Williams and second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera ejected in the 10th.

Yusmeiro Petit entered in the 12th and threw six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out seven, to earn the win. Hunter Strickland got the save.

Game 3 is Monday in San Francisco.

Washington starter Jordan Zimmermann took a three-hitter and 1-0 lead into the ninth. He was pulled after a two-out walk to Joe Panik, and reliever Drew Storen gave up a single to Buster Posey and an RBI double by Sandoval. Posey was thrown out at the plate on Sandoval’s hit, a call that was upheld on a video review.

The Nationals used nine pitchers in the first 17 innings and the Giants had seven.

The previous record for a postseason game is the 18 innings played by the Braves and Astros in a 2005 NLDS.

There was a 16-inning game in the 1986 NLCS between the Mets and Astros.

At press time, the Los Angeles Dodgers led the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0, in Game 2 of the other NLDS game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

St. Louis leads the series 1-0 after a 10-9 win in the series opener, but Los Angeles pitcher Zack Greinke held the Cardinals to just two hits over the first seven innings Saturday night.

Dee Gordon and Adrian Gonzalez drove in runs in a two-run third inning for the Dodgers.