Both teams said all the right things about the issue being handled, the feud complete, the trouble behind them. But it was not until the innings went on, the hours passed, and baseball consumed them again that the tension seemed to cool in the breeze off the bay. A day after one of the more explosive moments in Nationals history, they outlasted the Giants in a slow, slogging game that seemed to signal a detente. Before the game, Manager Dusty Baker suggested the best retaliation would be to beat the Giants on Tuesday night. That is exactly what his Nationals did, moving to 32-19 overall in the process with their 15th win in May.

At first, it seemed even the smallest spark could reignite the angst, a pitch thrown a bit too far inside, a malicious glance, or something like that. Disputes like the one in which Bryce Harper and Hunter Strickland involved their teammates and coaches Monday afternoon are not easily left behind.

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But the umpires did not warn either side before the game, seemingly certain that the whole thing was over. Harper said as much before the game, that by heading to the mound he ensured the feud would end right then and there.

Even so, the game felt like it was being played on a tightrope early on, one filled with checkpoints that must be safely passed, lest the whole thing plummet into frustrated chaos once again.

The first checkpoint was Harper’s first at-bat, which came against Jeff Samardzija, the former Notre Dame football star who had hunted him during the brawl. He pitched to Harper, largely staying away in a seven-pitch at-bat. Harper grounded out to first and trotted back to the dugout. His teammates created two runs after that, when Ryan Zimmerman drove in Trea Turner, and Daniel Murphy drove in Zimmerman.

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The next checkpoint was Buster Posey’s first at-bat. Though Posey played no role in the brawl – in fact, he was noticeably inactive as it began – he is the closest thing to Harper on the Giants’ roster, a star, a face of the franchise, an indispensable presence.

He came to bat with a man on second and two down in the first – in other words, with a base open, but also in a situation starter Gio Gonzalez would want to escape, not escalate. He did not throw at Posey, of course. He walked him, and was therefore left to get out of a first-inning jam while his fastball sat at 87 and 88 mph, instead of the usual 90 and 91.

“There was none of that in my mind,” Gonzalez said. “…I think that was done after yesterday. We had to just go out there and play the game. We couldn’t let that be more than it should have been.”

The early evening revolved around Harper and Samardzija all the same, as three straight singles brought Harper to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the second. Harper struck out looking, at which point the crowd that booed Harper when he came to the plate stood and cheered him back to the dugout.

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Harper struck out looking again in the fourth, stranding Jayson Werth at third after the 38-year-old’s first triple since 2015. Harper looked frustrated with the call, but controlled himself, chatting with home plate umpire Mike DiMuro for a few seconds without ever devolving. Samardzija’s evening ended after that at-bat, after 100 pitches in four laborious innings and thousands of boos for Harper, who finished 0 for 5.

“What happened yesterday is over,” Baker said. “I just hate that everyone is making Bryce the culprit. He was really the victim. Things will subside.”

Outside of Harper, the offense hummed. By the sixth inning they amassed 13 hits and scored more runs than they had in a week. Daniel Murphy and Trea Turner added three hits each. Werth, Ryan Zimmerman, and Michael A. Taylor each had two. Even Gonzalez drove in a run with an RBI single.

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Gonzalez, who never even came close to hitting anyone Tuesday night, did not have a 1-2-3 inning in any of his 6 1/3 innings of work. Nevertheless, he held the Giants down in a tightrope walk of his own. He danced around base runners in every inning except the second, when two of them scored.

Matt Albers relieved Gonzalez, and allowed one inherited runner to score, but nothing more in two innings of work. Koda Glover pitched the ninth, and dispatched the heart of the Giants’ order with no trouble to earn his fourth save in five days.

“The Bryce and Strickland thing kind of settled itself,” Glover said. “We’re here to win.”