WASHINGTON -- The Nationals' drenched series finale against the Giants saw two rain delays totaling two hours and two minutes, 10 innings and 14 pitchers between the clubs.

An eighth-inning tie quickly turned into a downpour of rallies and missed opportunities, resulting in the Nationals’ 9-5 loss on Thursday at Nationals Park.

First pitch had been moved up four hours to 12:05 p.m. ET ahead of the anticipated forecast.

“It was good ‘til it wasn’t,” manager Dave Martinez said. “Played in sloppy conditions and we got sloppy the last two innings. We fought hard, the last two innings weren’t good.”

With the score knotted at 3-3, the Nationals turned to All-Star closer Kyle Finnegan to preserve the scoreless effort of the bullpen. Eduardo Salazar, Jacob Barnes and Derek Law had thrown a combined 5 1/3 innings following DJ Herz’s 2 2/3-inning start.

Finnegan allowed a one-out single to Tyler Fitzgerald and issued walks to Heliot Ramos and Michael Conforto at the top of the Giants order. He got one out away from escaping the jam by striking out Matt Chapman, but Mark Canha sliced a bases-clearing ground-ball double into right field off a 96 mph fastball. Alex Call’s errant throw home landed in the camera well next to the Giants dugout, and Finnegan was closer to first base instead of backing up the plate.

“You feel like you see your way out of it, and you’re just trying to attack,” Finnegan said. “I felt like I had a good chance there to get him. I felt like I executed the pitch, and he hit it where we weren’t. I went to go cover first and saw that it got through. Then [I] just didn’t really have enough time to get back where I needed to be. The wet conditions, the ball skipped right past [catcher] Keibert [Ruiz] and went right into the camera well. It’s just tough. You feel like you’re on the verge of getting out of it, and all of a sudden, you’re in a bad spot.”

Finnegan, who entered the game with a 0.79 ERA in home games, was charged with three runs (two earned) in 2/3 of an inning before he was replaced by left-hander Robert Garcia.

“I almost had to eliminate my splitter -- it’s pretty tough to throw when it’s wet,” Finnegan said. “... The rain had picked up, so I was just trying to really attack with my fastball and locate it in spots that I thought gave me the best chance. It’s tough to hit in those conditions and it’s tough to pitch. Both teams are out there in the rain. It’s not making an excuse, it is what it is.”

The Nationals still trailed by three runs with two on, two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth, when Luis García Jr. created a whole new ballgame with one swing.

The hot-hitting second baseman pounced on a 97.5 mph cutter up in the zone from Camilo Doval and belted it a Statcast-projected 351 feet into the left-field corner by the foul pole to tie the game at five apiece. García is batting .385 (20-for-52) with three homers and 11 RBIs in his last 14 games.

“I stayed with my game plan, and I was looking for a pitch up in the zone -- preferably a fastball,” García said, adding, “I was surprised because I didn’t think I had enough on it to get it out.”

The Giants reclaimed momentum in the tenth, though.

Garcia returned to the mound with Jerar Encarnacion as the automatic runner on second base. The first at-bat was a Mike Yastrzemski fielder’s choice, which CJ Abrams threw to Ildemaro Vargas at third base in an attempt to nab Encarnacion. Abrams was assessed a throwing error, and the Giants had runners on the corners with no outs.

“They fought us like crazy,” said Conforto. “We just had a big inning at the end, and took this one home.”

Juan Yepez tumbled as he ran in to field a ground-ball bunt by Brett Wisely, allowing Encarnacion to score the go-ahead run. In the next at-bat against Patrick Bailey, Vargas was charged with a missed catch error on a fielder’s choice from Garcia to third.

The Nats fell into a three-run hole when Conforto drove in Yastrzemski and Wisely on a single to shallow left field.

“Both teams played in the same conditions,” Martinez said. “Those plays should be made, and we do make those plays. For whatever reason, we didn’t today and it cost us some runs.”