Giants hang on,take Game One of NLDS

Jake Peavy gave the San Francisco Giants what they needed in his five and two third innings of shutout baseball and the Giant bullpen hung on with outs when they were needed as the Giants stunned starter Stephen Strasburg and his Washington Nationals 3-2 at Nationals Park in Washington..
The Giants used run scoring singles in each of the 3rd,4th and 7th innings to build a 3-0 lead before two solo blasts off Hunter Strickland brought Washington to within a run in the seventh inning,but no closer.
Santiago Casilla slammed the door with a flawless ninth inning to end the game.
Game two is tomorrow in Washington with veteran Tim Hudson for the Giants and Jordan Zimmerman for the home Nationals.

Giant Steps

1) Ten singles among twelve hits for the Giants,who just nickled and dimed their way around the Washington staff.
This teams doesn't have an abundance of power or speed and their pitching is good,not great,but they find a way to get things done.

2) I've made my opinion on Bryce Harper well known,but man,did he just punish Hunter Strickland's fastball into the upper deck in right field?
The ball was measured at just under 120 miles per off the bat.
Simple physics that all hard throwers discover on occasion-a ball thrown hard that is struck quickly and solidly tends to leave parks immediately.

3) I will say this despite the two solo homers that Hunter Strickland allowed,he showed the arm that if he has the head to go with it will eventually make him the closer for the Giants.
His four pitches that blew Ian Desmond away with runners on in the 6th measured (in no particular order) 98,98,99,100.
For a guy that was in Richmond a few weeks ago,that's serious gas....

4) I really like Joe Panik,who doesn't do anything special,he just gets the job finished.
Not a ton of power or speed,Panik has enough of both to be a solid player for years to come.
Panik's triple to lead off the seventh looked innocent enough at the time,but Buster Posey's infield single that scored Panik was the game winning run and considering the Giants issue with the second base position most of the season before Panik's arrival,a real argument can be made that Panik's solidifying might have saved the Giants season.

5) Jake Peavy may not be the Cy Young winner of his youth at the age of 33,but he's become crafty enough to survive and yesterday's 100+ plus pitch outing in under six innings may have lacked artistic flair.
However,Peavy's grown as a pitcher in the way that you hope dominant throwers in their 20's change enough to be productive in their 30's.
Peavy's numbers were lousy in Boston,but at this stage of his career-a park like AT&T Park suits a flyball pitcher perfectly and I think Peavy could win 15 games next season pitching in San Francisco rather than a small hitters park as he had in Boston.

6) Not giving this series to the Giants by any part,but a split in Washington goes a long way towards the chances of doing so.
The only thing that is guaranteed is this-either the Giants win the series in 3 or the one of the two best ball parks in baseball gets two games in the postseason.
I don't care which one you pick as number one,the two best parks in baseball reside in Pittsburgh and San Francisco.