A scoreless ballgame through five

SAN FRANCISCO - Doug Fister's command hasn't been there early on. But he's thrown two scoreless innings, keeping this game knotted at zeros as we go to the third.

Fister has needed 43 pitches to get through two, including 27 in the second inning, when the Giants loaded the bases on a Pablo Sandoval single to left-center and two walks.

That brought up Giants starter Madison Bumgarner with the bases loaded, and by no means is the left-hander (who bats right-handed) an easy out. Bumgarner has two career grand slams, but Fister did well to keep the big-swinging starter from putting the ball in play, getting ahead of him with two nice sliders and then finishing him off with a fastball on the hands for the strikeout.

Fister has been missing up in the zone, which isn't a good sign for the sinkerballer, who thrives on keeping the ball down and getting groundball outs.

He is good at making in-game adjustments, however, and the Nationals hope he'll be able to get himself on track and spot that two-seamer a bit better as we get deeper into this game.

The Nats have managed just a bloop single off Bumgarner through two innings now. That single came off the bat of - who else - Anthony Rendon, who is now 6-for-12 in this series.

We're scoreless going to the top of the third.

Update: The Nats had a chance to grab a lead in the top of the third, when Denard Span and Rendon reached on back-to-back two-out singles to left.

Jayson Werth got a couple of solid pitches to hit, but he fouled both back to fall behind in the count 0-2. Bumgarner then went to his slider in a 2-2 count, and Werth grounded a ball to second that Joe Panik fielded easily to end the inning.

The Nats have now gone scoreless in their last 18 innings. The Giants have only managed two runs in their last 22 frames, but that's been enough to help give them the 2-0 series lead.

Update II: We're now through five innings, and there are still zeros on the scoreboard.

Fister has settled in and starting locating down in the zone more the last few innings, perhaps an indication that he's back in a zone after a long layoff. Let's not forget, he hadn't started a game in 10 days, and could have been a bit rusty or too strong early on. Sinkerballers typically don't like extra rest because it leaves them too strong and their two-seamer rises in the zone.

Bumgarner has now thrown 21 straight scoreless innings in the postseason. That's pretty good.