Matt Williams after 18-inning loss: "Hindsight is a great thing"

Way back on Saturday afternoon, Jordan Zimmermann started Game 2 of the National League Division Series for the Nationals.

Fresh off his no-hitter, the right-hander was dominant again, pitching 8 2/3 innings before Matt Williams decided to go with Drew Storen after Zimmermann walked Joe Panik with two outs in the ninth.

"(Zimmermann) got in trouble in the ninth inning. ... We were going to bring our closer in," Williams said. "It's what we've done all year. He got the first two guys and he wasn't going to face (Buster) Posey. Buster lined out to third in the previous at-bat, saw the ball pretty good off him all night long. We decided to go with the closer."

Panik eventually came around to score after Posey's single and a Pablo Sandoval's RBI double off Storen, tying the game at 1-1 in the ninth.

"Hindsight is a great thing," Williams said. "You know, if our starting pitcher goes out there, and he's at 100 pitches third time, fourth time, through the lineup and he gets in trouble in the ninth inning, we're going to go to the guy that's been perfect for us since he's been in that role.

"Didn't work out, but that's what we had planned for the ninth inning. That's the way we went."

The game then went on to become the longest by time in postseason history at 6 hours, 23 minutes.

The next, and only other, run of the game didn't come until the 18th inning on a Brandon Belt home run. The Nats were unable to combat the homer, and fell to the Giants 2-1 in 18 innings.

Here's more from the skipper after the Nats' loss.

On the decision to put Storen in: "It's the plan. If he gets out there for the ninth inning and gets into trouble, we're going to go to the closer anyway. Like I said, (Zimmermann) got through the first couple guys. The walk certainly gave Drew some leeway, Buster got the single then Pablo got a double. But Drew's been perfect in those situations for us since he's been our closer, and that's the time to go to him."

On being tossed in the 10th after Asdrubal Cabrera's ejection: "I thought the 3-1 pitch was a little up, and then of course Asdrubal thought the 3-2 pitch was up. Once he was ejected, I went out there. What I said is between me and the umpire."

On being down 0-2 in the series: "We don't have a choice now. You know, it's a must-win for us. We will get a day off tomorrow, and see if we can get a win in Game 3. Then, we must win Game 4 and hopefully get it back to here. That's all we can do at this point."

On the Nats' inability to score after the third inning: We couldn't string anything together. Neither could they until Brandon hit the homer. You know, couldn't bunch anything together after that.

"Have to regroup. Go into their place. See if we can start bunching them together and give ourselves a chance."