The San Francisco Giants are continuing their playoff magic and grabbed a 3-1 series lead over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS. Giants' catcher Buster Posey led the way, going 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored. Game 5 will take place in San Francisco on Thursday night at 8:00 p.m.
St. Louis now has their back against the wall and is in a must-win situation after the Giants erased a 4-1 deficit on Wednesday night to extend the series lead. San Francisco's initial game plan wasn't executed accordingly. They were likely expecting starter Ryan Vogelsong to give them a strong outing, since he recently became the first pitcher in history to give up one run or fewer in his first five postseason starts.
But the right-hander was pulled after three innings. He threw 60 pitches, only 36 for strikes, and surrendered seven hits, two walks and four earned runs. St. Louis jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the top of the third inning thanks to RBI singles from Matt Adams (1st inning) and A.J. Pierzynski (2nd inning), followed by a Jhonny Peralta double play groundout that scored Matt Holliday and a Kolten Wong solo home run in the third. However, the Giants responded quickly.
In the bottom half of the third, San Francisco got two of those runs back with RBIs singles from Buster Posey and Hunter Pence. Cardinals' starter Shelby Miller's outing was cut short when Mike Matheny pulled him after 3 2/3 innings. The right-hander gave up three runs on six hits and two walks and was about to face the top of the order when Matheny called to the bullpen for Randy Choate. But the Cardinals' bullpen didn't do too much to help out the cause.
Choate got out of the fourth, but Marco Gonzales and Seth Maness ran into some trouble in the sixth. The two combined for five hits, three earned runs and a walk in just two innings of work. Posey struck again with an RBI single to go along with RBI groundouts from Gregor Blanco and Joe Panik. The Giants' bullpen was masterful, providing six strong innings of shutout baseball to preserve the team's 6-4 victory. Petit threw three innings and gave up only one hit and struck out four in relief for Vogelsong. Jeremy Affeldt (2/3 IP), Javier Lopez (1/3 IP), Sergio Romo (1 IP) and Santiago Casilla (1 IP) followed after Petit.
The Giants will look to close the series out tonight as they host the Cardinals for Game 5 at AT&T Park. The aces will return to the mound as Madison Bumgarner will face Adam Wainwright in a rematch from Game 1 of the series. Bumgarner and the Giants were victorious in that matchup, with the left-hander tossing 7 2/3 innings of scoreless ball and giving up only four hits. Wainwright, on the other hand, has had a rough postseason. In two starts, he's thrown nine innings and surrendered eight earned runs on 17 hits. St. Louis was able to rally back after his poor start against the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLDS, but couldn't do the same against Bumgarner and the Giants in Game 1 of the NLCS, which they lost 3-0.
But the Giants should be looking over their shoulder, because they don't want the Cardinals to do what was done to them in 2012. St. Louis took a 3-1 lead in the 2012 NLCS only to watch San Francisco win three in a row and advance to the World Series. We have a little bit of a role reversal this time around, so the Giants need to be careful because if they lose tonight then they'll have to travel to St. Louis for the final two games of the series.
Bumgarner (5-3 with a 2.58 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in the postseason) and Wainwright (4-4 with a 3.17 ERA and 1.15 WHIP) should provide a great matchup at 8:00 p.m. Thursday night.
