Nationals manager Matt Williams leaves himself open to second-guessing

We don't have the space or the time to go over every pertinent detail of Saturday night's 6-hour, 23-minute marathon in which the Giants stunned the Nationals, 2-1, in 18 innings in Game 2 of the NLDS.

But we can tell you why these two teams made history. And also the reason the Nats, down two games to none, are positioned to be swept out of the playoffs with Madison Bumgarner going for the Giants in Game 3.

Put it this way: When Matt Williams is introduced Monday night at AT&T Park, he should get a standing ovation.

With Jordan Zimmermann one out away from a complete game and a shutout Saturday night, it was Williams who proved to be his biggest obstacle. All it took was a walk to the Giants' No. 2 hitter, rookie Joe Panik, for Williams to make the now-regrettable decision to replace Zimmermann with closer Drew Storen, who gave up the tying run on a double by Pablo Sandoval.

At the time, before hearing from Williams, we figured that maybe Zimmermann was tired after throwing 100 pitches. Or Williams saw something that he didn't like during that at-bat by Panik, who launched a 400-foot fly ball that didn't miss the rightfield pole by all that much as it sailed foul.

Nope. We're not sure if those would have been the right explanations for yanking Zimmermann. But what Williams did say sure felt wrong. Rather than sizing up what his ace had left after the Panik walk, Williams chose to go by the book. It was a save situation and Storen, who ended the regular season on a 20-inning scoreless streak, is his closer.

"Why did we decide to take him out?" Williams said. "Because if he got in trouble in the ninth or got a baserunner, we were going to bring our closer in. That is what we have done all year."

Williams also was concerned that the next hitter, Buster Posey, had been seeing Zimmermann pretty good by then. Posey lined out sharply to third leading off the seventh -- which took only seven pitches for Zimmermann to complete, by the way -- and Williams thought he might be dangerous there in the ninth.

As for Zimmermann, he didn't put up any resistance when Williams came out to retrieve him. He shared a few fist bumps with the infielders gathered around him, handed over the baseball and left to a well-deserved rousing ovation from the towel-waving crowd of 44,035.

The fans would have preferred to see him finish, of course. It sounded as if he wanted that, too. "I knew I was on a short leash and Drew was ready," he said. "I would like to stay out there, yes. But I'm not going to disagree with anything Skip does. And it's over with now."

If this were April, June or August, we'd shrug and accept that for an answer. But this was essentially a must-win situation for the Nats, and Zimmermann -- the staff ace -- had pitched a near-flawless game. Before the Panik walk, he had retired 20 straight.

If Zimmermann believed he had more in the tank and could get one more out, that was the time to push for the opportunity. Before the top of the ninth, he had to sit for nearly 20 minutes during a long Nationals eighth, but he gave the thumbs-up to Williams when he came over to check on him. There apparently were no concerns about fatigue or any other physical issue. "I felt good," he said. "I still felt strong. The ball was coming out good."

Plus, Zimmerman thought he got squeezed on the 1-and-0 pitch to Panik, which changed the entire at-bat in his mind. The stadium went deathly quiet when Panik drove that long foul ball into the rightfield seats. That probably made Williams a little nervous. But the walk convinced him to make the change. "Hindsight is a great thing," he said. "It didn't work out. That is what we had planned for in the ninth. That is the way we went."

If things don't go their way in Game 3, he'll have a long offseason to think about it.