The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-3 in their NL Division Series matchup, tying the series at two games apiece.
The Giants doubled their total run output in this series in this game alone, going crazy for eight runs against a Reds pitching staff that was lost without ace Johnny Cueto. Mike Leake got the start for Cincinnati as we reported this morning, and it went about as poorly as possible for the Reds. Leake pitched 4 1/3 innings, and allowed five runs on six hits, including two homers. Going into the fifth inning, Leake actually looked like he had done a solid job of preventing damage outside of the home runs, and then proceeded to allow back to back doubles to lead off the inning, making the game 4-2. Angel Pagan scored on a sac fly after Leake left in the fifth to make it 5-2, and the Reds couldn't catch up from that. Jose Arredondo threw gas on the fire in the seventh, allowing two doubles, a homer, and a walk to four of the five batters he faced, turning the game into an 8-3 rout.
But the Reds, like so many teams have done in these playoffs so far, blew many scoring chances. Barry Zito was all over the place during his 2 2/3 inning stint, and walked in a run in the first inning. Dioner Navarro struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning. In the second, the Reds got infield singles from Brandon Phillips and Zach Cozart with two outs, and left them both stranded. Ryan Ludwick homered to lead off the third and make it a 3-2 game, and that was all that happened that inning aside from Zito getting pulled. The Reds put two on with one out in the fourth, Jose Mijares struck out Joey Votto, and Tim Lincecum came in to strike Ludwick out.
And after that fourth inning, it was the Lincecum show in Cincinnati. The two-time Cy Young winner ran into trouble in the sixth after Drew Stubbs led off with a double and scored without another Reds hit in the inning, but that inning was bookended by perfect fifth and seventh innings. In the eighth, with a five run lead, Lincecum allowed a single to Navarro and let him move up to second after a throwing error before getting out of the inning. All in all for the new Giants bullpen ace: 4 1/3 innings, two hits, one run, no walks, six strikeouts, and ten whiffs on 55 pitches. Absolutely fantastic.
The Reds' advantage in this series is now totally gone. It will go to a winner-take-all game five on Thursday at 1:07 PM. Mat Latos will start for the Reds (on full rest), and Matt Cain will start for the Giants. The winner will advance to the NLCS to take on either the Cardinals or Nationals. This series has done a complete 180, and all the momentum is now with the Giants. Dusty Baker has to be sweating right now while thinking about tomorrow's game.
