San Francisco will be back in the World Series for the second time in three years thanks to three straight wins over St. Louis in elimination games. The Giants are 6-0 in elimination games this postseason, something the Cardinals had done last year on their way to the title.
The Giants put this game out of reach early and with the help of Matt Cain and his fellow bullpen teammates as they were able to keep the Cardinals from pulling off another deciding-game comeback. Cain went 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball while only allowing six baserunners (one walk). On the other side of the mound, Kyle Lohse was anything but perfect as he only lasted into the third inning (didn’t record an out in the inning) while giving up five runs on seven baserunners (one walk). The five-run third inning for the Giants seemed to put the dagger in the Cardinals as they didn’t show much life after.
After getting a run in the first and second innings, the Giants poured it on St. Louis by loading the bases with no out. Hunter Pence would then double to clear the bases making it 5-0. Lohse would then allow the next two batters to reach to load them up again. Brandon Crawford would beat out a Pete Kozma throw to make it 6-0 and Angel Pagan would ground out to end the scoring in the inning at 7-0. The Giants would add a run in the seventh when Aubrey Huff grounded into a double play allowing Gregor Blanco to score. They would finish the scoring off in the eighth when Brandon Belt would send a Jason Motte fastball into the right field seats to make it 9-0.
The Cardinals did have runners in scoring position in the first and second innings but could not get a single run across off of Matt Cain. The Cardinals finished the last three games with a .189 batting average with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals wouldn’t really threaten to put a dent into the Giants lead again as the bullpen of Affeldt, Casilla, Lopez, and Romo faught the rain to shut down the Cards for good.
The NLCS MVP went to Marco Scutaro. (.458 AVG, 3 3B, 4 RBI)
Game 1 of the World Series will be Wednesday at 8:00pm from San Francisco
Verlander 3 – 0 0.74 ERA (DET) vs. TBD (SF)
Photo Credits: AP Photo/David J. Phillip
