Series amatchup of comeback kids
SAN FRANCISCO— As many times as he gets asked, Cardinals closer JasonMotte still has no perfect answer for how St. Louis foundaway to win atWashington after trailing 6- 0 and advance to the NL Championship Series again.
“These guys just prove what big hearts they have and howmuch they go out there and work their butts off,” saidMotte, Friday night’s winning pitcher in Game 5. “Someone asked me last night howwe keep doing it, and I said, ‘ I don’t know, maybe we’re just stubborn. We just don’t give up.’ That’s kind of how you have to be.”
The San Francisco Giants get it, all right. They’ve been doing it the same way.
The last twoWorld Series winners sure are showing their championship mettle in mid- October.
St. Louis manager MikeMatheny will watch the game again, once things slow down, so he can truly appreciate just what his Cardinals accomplished in beating the Nationals— the team with baseball’s best record this season.
San Francisco skipper Bruce Bochy doesn’t need another look to know how impressive the reigning World Series champions’ ninth- inning comeback was for a 9- 7 victory in the nation’s capital.
Bochy’s team had its own remarkable rally that’s not quite as fresh as the Cardinals’ feat: three road wins at Cincinnati to advance after dropping the first two games of the division series at home.
They will face off in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday night at San Francisco’s AT& T Park. LefthanderMadison Bumgarner gets the ball for the Giants against 6- 5 righthander Lance Lynn.
While the Giants became the eighth team to erase a 2- 0 deficit to win a best- of- five series and first inmajor league history to do it on the road, the Cardinals earned the biggest comeback ever in a winner- take- all postseason game, according to STATS LLC.
Erasing an early six- run hole slowly but surely, the defending World Series champions got a tying two- out, tworun single from Daniel Descalso and a go- ahead two- run single from Pete Kozma in the ninth inning and came all the way back to beat the Nationals 9- 7.
Down 7- 5 with two outs in the ninth against Nationals closer Drew Storen, the Cardinals twice were a strike away from losing. But Storen walked both of those batters, YadierMolina and David Freese, setting the stage for the unheralded Descalso and Kozma.
“It really hasn’t sunk in,” Matheny said after an all- night, cross- country trip to the Bay Area. “I see a knockdown, drag- out ahead of us. I’mcertain Major League Baseball has to be very pleased with the caliber of baseball that’s happened so far in this postseason.
“And I don’t see any reason why the excitement wouldn’t continue.”
Alabama 42, Missouri 10— Eddie Lacy and T. J. Yeldon gave the top- ranked Crimson Tide a pair of 100- yard rushers in the same game for the first time this season, and the duo combined for five scores in a soggy, weatherdelayed victory over the host Tigers.
MarcusMurphy set aMissouri single- season record with his fourth kick return for touchdown, a 98- yard kickoff return in the second quarter right after a 38- minute delay due to lightning with just under nine minutes left in the first half.
Lacy had a career- best 177 yards on 18 carries and three TDs, including a 73- yarder on the game’s second snap. Yeldon had 144 yards on 18 carries and two TDs.
Florida 31, Vanderbilt 17 — Quarterback Jeff Driskel rushed for 177 yards rushing and three touchdowns to lead the No. 4 Gators past the host Commodores.
Driskel threwfor only 77 yards and ran only 11 times. But the sophomore set the Florida record for yards rushing by a quarterback, topping TimTebow’s 166 yards againstMississippi in 2007 on 27 carries.
TheGators alsohad three sacks, forced a turnover, blocked a field goal and used a fake punt to put away Vanderbilt.
Mississippi State 41, Tennessee 31— Tyler Russell threwfor 291 yards and two touchdowns, LaDarius Perkins added 101 rushing yards and a touchdown, and the No. 19 Bulldogs beat the visiting Volunteers to remain undefeated.
After Tennessee had whittled down a 13- point lead to just three midway through the fourth quarter, Russell sealed the victory with a 9- yard pass to Malcolm Johnson with nine seconds remaining. The junior quarterback completed 23 of 37 passes and set career highs in completions, attempts and passing yards.
Arkansas 49, Kentucky 7— TylerWilsonwas 23of- 31 passing for 372 yards and a career- high five TDs to lead the Razorbacks to a lopsided win over theWildcats in a game shortened by severe weather.
Wilson threwa 74- yard touchdown pass to running back JonathanWilliams on the opening play for Arkansas, which had 533 yards of total offense before the gamewas called with 5: 08 remaining in the third quarter because of lightning near Razorback Stadium.
Mississippi 41, Auburn 20— Quarterback BoWallace scored four touchdowns rushing, passing and receiving as the Rebels pulled away from the visiting Tigers in the second half to snap a 16- game Southeastern Conference losing streak.
Auburn pulled within 2420 on a 36- yard field goal with 4: 56 left in the third quarter but managed only one first down in its final five possessions.