A tight Game 2 ended in favor of the St. Louis Cardinals. After Seth Maness escaped a bases loaded jam in the top of the ninth to keep the score tied, Cardinals' second baseman Kolten Wong delivered yet another big postseason hit, this time a walk-off home run off Giants reliever Sergio Romo.
St. Louis looked as if they would be dropping another game at home to San Francisco. The Giants took a 3-2 lead in the top half of the seventh inning, but Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras smacked a home run in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game. Matt Adams sent another one into the stands in the bottom of the eighth, giving the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.
But closer Trevor Rosenthal got St. Louis into a bit of a jam in the ninth. After giving up two singles with one out, Rosenthal walked Giants second baseman Joe Panik on a wild pitch, allowing pinch-runner Matt Duffy to score and tie the game. Rosenthal then walked Buster Posey to load the bases, which was the final straw for manager Mike Matheny. He called in right-hander Seth Maness, who got Pablo Sandoval to ground out. With the game tied at four, Sergio Romo came on in relief for the Giants.
But it was a short-lived outing for Romo. Wong led off the inning and took Romo deep to right field on his second pitch of the at-bat, giving the Cardinals a 5-4 win and tying the NLCS at one game apiece. The two teams will play the next three games in San Francisco, with Game 3 featuring starters John Lackey (7-5 with a 2.92 ERA in his postseason career) of the Cardinals and Tim Hudson (1-3 with a 3.19 ERA) of the Giants. The two right-handers are coming off wins from their NLDS series in which they each only gave up one run.
Hudson has been in the league for 16 seasons, and Lackey 12, but Lackey has the edge in postseason experience. He has 20 appearances, including 17 starts and two World Series championships compared to Hudson's 11 appearances and 10 starts. Lackey joined the Cardinals via a trade with the Red Sox in July and Hudson signed with San Francisco in the offseason, so these two men are new to their teams, but they've gotten comfortable fairly quickly.
"John is a guy that has been there and has done well," Matheny said, in this MLB.com article. "It is going to be a great opportunity for him to stand up and to continue help lead the club from the pitching staff perspective."
2014 is the first season in which Hudson has advanced in the playoffs after failed campaigns in 2000-2003 with the Oakland Athletics as well as 2005 and 2010 with the Atlanta Braves. Hudson delivered for the Giants last week after he called out the Washington Nationals in the NLDS.
"Come playoff time, talent can take you a long ways, but what do you have between your legs?" he said, in this Washington Post article. "That's going to take you real far. And I think we've got a group in here that really has some of that."
That applies even more so for the NLCS, especially between these two historic franchises. Game 3 will air on FOX Sports 1 on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.