SAN FRANCISCO -- Monday night at AT&T Park marked the day when manager Manny Acta showed how much confidence he had in 22-year-old John Lannan.

The left-hander already had pitched in two big-league games. Lannan was shaky in his debut, hitting two batters and being ejected after hitting Ryan Howard in the fifth inning. In his next start, Lannan won his first big-league game, giving up two runs in 5 2/3 innings against the Reds.

But the Monday night game was different. Lannan pitched his best game of the season in a 3-2 loss to the Giants. It was done despite the fact that he didn't have good command of his fastball.

Lannan pitched in the spotlight primarily because he was facing Barry Bonds, who was tied with Hank Aaron for the career home run lead with 755. As it turned out, Lannan shined in front of a national audience.

"The kid did a tremendous job under [difficult conditions]," Acta said. "It's not easy for a kid who started in A-ball this year and come up here in front of this crowd and go through what's going on here. He couldn't command his fastball good today, but he made good pitches when he had to."

It also helped that Acta showed confidence in the left-hander starting in the sixth inning. With the score tied at 1, the Nationals had a golden opportunity to break the game wide open off starter Tim Lincecum. Washington had the bases loaded and two outs. Acta allowed Lannan to bat in the inning and the left-hander promptly struck out.

"I talked to [pitching coach] Randy [St. Claire] and he said jump on the first fastball and try to go the other way with it," Lannan said. "I guess it was little shocking, but I'm glad it happened because I went out and finished the seventh."

Lannan came through big for Acta in the seventh inning. After walking Omar Vizquel with one out, it meant that Lannan was going to face Bonds.

As Lannan was facing Randy Winn, left-hander Ray King was warming up in the bullpen. Bonds was 1-for-16 with a home run against King. But after Winn flied out to right fielder Austin Kearns, Acta kept Lannan in the game.

"Lannan was throwing the ball good. It was left-left and two outs and I thought he pitched to Bonds well the whole game. I thought it would be the end of Lannan's day anyway, so why not do that way?" Acta said.

Bonds was ahead in the count 3-1, but Lannan battled and, man, did he battle. Lannan threw a fastball -- letter high -- that Bonds swung and missed. On the next pitch, Lannan threw a curveball and Bonds struck out swinging. Bonds ended up going 0-for-3 with a walk against Lannan.

"I was trying to keep my composure and follow the game plan, just trying to keep the team in it --- go out there and make my pitches," Lannan said. "[Catcher] Brian [Schneider], Randy -- we all sat down and had a game plan to go out there and go after [Bonds] if we had a chance. I just had faith in Brian. Fortunately, he swung through the 3-1 pitch to set up the curveball. I was just following the game plan."

There were times during the game when Lannan was awestruck that he was facing Bonds, but he made sure that Bonds didn't intimidate him. He followed King's advice, which was to step off the mound every time Bonds went into the batter's box.

"I was trying to make pitches. There were times I was overthrowing. I settled down and I was able to make pitches," Lannan said.

The Nationals got off to a good start against Lincecum. With the bases loaded and no outs, Young hit a sacrifice fly to Bonds in left field to drive in Nook Logan.

But the Giants quickly tied it up against Lannan in the bottom of the first inning, when Bengie Molina singled to left field to drive in Rajai Davis.

The Nationals took the lead in the top of the 10th inning, when Young took an 0-2 pitch from Scott Atchison and hit the ball over the right-field wall to give the Nationals a one-run lead.

The Giants, however, came back and tied the score in the bottom of the inning against closer Chad Cordero. Winn scored on a Molina groundout.

King eventually entered the game in the 11th inning, but couldn't get anybody out. He left with the bases loaded. Enter Luis Ayala, who allowed a one-out single to Winn to score Dave Roberts.

"Tonight, I didn't get the job done, with Ryan Klesko leading off with that double. That set the whole tone for that inning. They battled and they beat us," King said.