Giants Crush Cards, Force NLCS Game 7
Fitzgerald Cecilio
San Francisco, CA
Ryan Vogelsong fanned a career-high nine batters and Marco Scutaro hit a two-run double in the four-run second frame as the San Francisco Giants forced Game 7 in the National League Championship Series with a 6-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday at AT&T Park.
Matt Cain will try to help the Giants become just the 11th team in league history Tuesday to win a best-of-seven series after bouncing back from a 3-1 deficit.
If the Giants win, San Francisco will be the only fifth NL team to achieve this feat, joining Pittsburgh (1925 and 1979 World Series), Atlanta (1996 LCS) and Florida (2003 LCS).
"You go out there and you play like there's no tomorrow," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "And these guys have done a great job of it. They're keeping their poise, and they're finding ways to get it done."
Cain (0-1) will go up against Game 3 winner Kyle Lohse, who limited the Giants to one run en route to a 3-1 victory that gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead in the series.
"You've seen us the last couple years -- it seems, unfortunately, we don't win until we absolutely need to," Lohse said. "We got to go in there, wipe the slate clean. We've got one game to play."
Vogelsong (2-0) no-hit St. Louis for 4 2/3 innings before Daniel Descalso singled for the first of only four hits he allowed in seven innings. He asserted his presence by throwing 12 straight fastballs to start the game and striking out five of the six Cardinals he faced.
"And I just knew that I had to keep them off the board early and give us a chance to do something offensively," said Vogelsong.
Vogelsong struck out at least one batter in each inning but the sixth where the Cardinals scored their only run from an RBI single by Allen Craig.
By then, the Giants had already built a 5-0 lead behind an RBI groundout by Buster Posey in the first inning starter Chris Carpenter (0-2), who allowed five runs - two earned - on six hits with two talks and six strikeouts.
San Francisco added four more runs against Carpenter in the fourth inning from a two-run double by Scutaro and RBI singles by Vogelsong and Pablo Sandoval. In the 8th, Ryan Theriot hit an RBI single for the final count.
"I've got to do a better job or figure out my situation," said Carpenter, who had never lost consecutive postseason starts before. "But it's not fair to my ballclub to be down 5-0 all the time after two innings."
The St. Louis Cardinals face the San Francisco Giants on Monday in a decisive Game 7 of the NLCS. The Giants avoided elimination on Sunday, beating the Cardinals 6-1
Giants Top Cards 6-1
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