SF Giants outlast Washington in 12 innings, win third straight game

Matt Chapman hit a run-scoring single in the top of the 12th inning and Caleb Kilian made it stand up Saturday as the Giants beat the host Washington Nationals 7-6 for their third straight win.

“It’s impossible not to have your mind drift a little bit, and you’re thinking this is a playoff-type game, an ESPN Classic-type game,” Giants manager Tony Vitello told reporters. “At the very least, it’s a game that you kind of grow up as a team.”

Now 9-12, the Giants will look to sweep Washington Sunday and complete a 5-4 road trip. After an off day, the Giants open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park on Tuesday.

Chapman’s single to left brought home free runner Luis Arraez with the lead run against reliever Cionel Perez (1-2). The Nationals fell to 9-12.

In the bottom of the 12th and a free runner at second, Kilian retired the side in order to record his first career win. Both the Nationals’ Perez and the Giants’ Kilian got through the 11th unscathed despite having free runners at second base to open the inning.

“I was just trying to keep my approach the same and not let all the pressure get to me,” Kilian said. “Trying to keep it simple as possible has kind of been my focus.”

Giants reliever Ryan Walker survived a hairy 10th inning to send the game into the 11th. With the bases loaded and two out, Jorbit Vivas grounded the ball to Willy Adames at short. Adames couldn’t reach second base in time to get the force play, but threw on to first base to get the third out.

It came in an inning where Washington had bases loaded and nobody out, with Walker recording a pair of strikeouts to set up the third out.

In the top of the 10th, Nats left-hander Richard Lovelady pitched a scoreless inning by stranding free runner Rafael Devers at second base, getting the third out when Vitello kept lefty-swinging Drew Gilbert in the game with two out. He was retired on a pop up.

One strike away from a win in the ninth, Washington’s Brady House blooped a run-scoring single to center against Walker, which scored James Wood to even the game at 6-6.

“I was super frustrated with the results in the ninth,” Walker said. “A hit like that is so frustrating. But getting back out there in the 10th and getting the job done and seeing Kilian go and get it was super fun.”

Moments earlier, Chapman at third base cut down Vivas at home with runners at first and third and one out. Center fielder Gilbert threw out Curtis Mead at third base for the third out to send the game into the 10th inning.

On the verge of being knocked out early and trailing by four runs, Giants starter Adrian Houser got no decision after lasting 5 2/3 innings and giving up five runs, four earned, with two walks and a strikeout. He threw 88 pitches, 57 for strikes. When removed for Ryan Borucki with two out in the sixth, Houser had retired 10 of 11 batters.

“He’s throwing the ball way too well to have it go the way it has statistically for him,” Vitello said. “He kind of set the tone for the day.”

Devers, having gone 0-for-3 and grounding into a double play, delivered the lead run for the Giants with a two-out RBI single to left against Gus Varland. It scored Adames, who singled and went to second on wild pitch.

Ramos hit his second home run of the season and second in two days with a two-run shot in the sixth inning. It drove in Jung Hoo Lee, who singled.

Wood hit the first pitch of the home half of the first inning against Houser for a 406-foot home run to left center, his seventh of the season. It was a no-doubter, leaving the bat at 109 miles per hour.

Washington starter Cade Cavalli gave up just one earned run in four innings, but needed 92 pitches to do it and was replaced by Mitchell Parker to open the fifth.

Trailing 5-1, the Giants got two runs back in the third inning on a a single by Casey Schmitt, with Chapman alertly scoring the second run when Daylen Lile in left bobbled the ball and was charged with with an error.

The Nationals got to Houser for four runs in the second inning, with the silver lining for the Giants being that it could have been worse.

Lile hit a first-pitch single, followed by a Willy Adames error at shortstop on a double play ground ball hit Nasim Nunez. Houser walked Jorbit Vivas, the No. 8 hitter, to load the bases, with Drew Millas hitting a grounder to Chapman that forced a runner at the plate. Houser hit Wood with a pitch on a 3-2 count to force in a run and make it 2-1, with Luis Garcia Jr. hitting a two-run single to right for a 4-1 lead.

Jose Tena slapped a single to left to bring in the Nationals’ fourth run of the inning, and for a frightful moment it appeared Abrams had broken the game wide open with a drive to center. The ball died at the fence however for a fly out, and Houser got out of the inning when Jacob Young popped up a bunt to catcher Patrick Bailey.

The Giants tied the game 1-1 in the top of the second, courtesy of a two-out RBI single by Drew Gilbert, scoring Heliot Ramos. Ramos was at second with a double, a play in which Lee was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first base.

Lee didn’t get a great jump waiting to see if Ramos’ drive to left would be caught, and the Nationals got him at the plate on a relay from Lile in left to Abrams at short to Millas at the plate.

NOTABLE

— Although struggling at the plate and having lost some time to rookie Daniel Susac at catcher, Bailey turned in a big play in the third inning by picking Lile off third base with one out in what turned out to be a scoreless inning for Houser. He also singled to left in the fourth to break a 1-for-14 streak on the road trip.

In the top of the eight with runners on first and third, Bailey twice failed to deliver on a bunt attempt before striking out against Varland.

— It was the Giants’ first win with a deficit of four or more runs under Vitello.

— In Sunday’s series finale, Giants left-hander Robbie Ray (2-2, 2.42) opposes Washington’s Miles Mikolas (0-3, 11.49) at 10:35 a.m. (PDT).

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This story was originally published April 18, 2026 at 4:57 PM.