Hoping to avoid a sweep, the Nationals sent Doug Fister to the mound in Game 3. Opposing him was Madison Bumgarner who had thrown a complete game shutout in the NL Wild Card game. Both pitchers threw six scoreless innings, but in the top of the seventh, Ian Desmond and Bryce Harper opened up the inning with back-to-back singles. Wilson Ramos attempted to bunt the runners over, but Bumgarner's throw to get the force out at third went past Pablo Sandoval and down the left field line, allowing both Desmond and Harper to score, with Ramos ending up at second on the error. Asdrúbal Cabrera singled in Ramos and the Nationals had a 3–0 lead. The score remained 3–0 until the ninth when Harper led off the inning with a home run to stretch the lead to 4–0. Drew Storen came on in the bottom half and allowed a single to Sandoval and a double to Hunter Pence to open the inning. Brandon Belt struck out looking for the first out. Brandon Crawford hit a sacrifice fly to score Sandoval and cut the lead to 4–1, but Storen got Travis Ishikawa to ground out for the final out of the game as the Nationals avoided a sweep. As it turned out, this would be the only loss Bumgarner would have the entire postseason.