The San Francisco Giants beat the St Louis Cardinals 9-0 in game seven of the NLCS, winning the series four games to three.
The Giants jumped all over Kyle Lohse early, knocking him out of the game in the third inning after the Cardinals starting tallied just six outs for the game. A Pablo Sandoval groundout in the first inning scored Angel Pagan to make the game 1-0, and in the second, a second run scored when Matt Cain singled home Gregor Blanco to help his own cause. The damn broke in the third and the Giants scored five times, starting with a two-run double by Hunter Pence that ended up with three runs scoring after a Jon Jay error. Groundouts by Brandon Crawford and Pagan brought two more runs across.
San Francisco didn't really need all of the offense, though. Matt Cain got the start, and the Giants' ace threw 5 2/3 shutout innings, allowing five hits, walking one and striking out four Cardinals hitters. The Giants' bullpen wasn't as sharp as it had been in previous games, but still didn't allow a run in their 3 1/3 innings of work. The Giants pen ended up allowing two hits, three walks, and four strikeotus while throwing 64 pitches in a downpour.
After Lohse left the game, the St Louis bullpen stopped the bleeding after the third inning. Edward Mujica and Trevor Rosenthal threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings, with Rosenthal striking out four hitters in his two innings of work and getting seven whiffs on 34 pitches. But the Giants scored once off of Mitchell Boggs in the seventh after a double play by Aubrey Huff brought a run home, and once off of St Louis closer Jason Motte after a Brandon Belt solo homer.
Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro was named the NLCS MVP after hitting .500 in the series with a 1.040 OPS. He had 14 hits in the series, and it's worth noting that Matt Holliday, Allen Craig, and David Freese of the Cardinals combined for 13 hits all series.
Hats off to the Cardinals on a great season, and as for the Giants, this is the second straight series they've come back from the brink of elimination to win. They've now won six games while facing elimination this year, a pretty amazing number considering that they've won just seven total games in the playoffs so far. The Giants will go on to face the Tigers in the World Series, and game one will be on Wednesday in San Francisco.
