San Francisco treat! Zito, Giants survive
ST. LOUIS — Cardinals, Cardinals, Cardinals, awesome, amazing, perfect. It was the only noise after St. Louis’ win in Game 4 of the NLCS Thursday night, and it blared. Giants? What’s that? Just some broken team for the Cards to step over.
Perhaps there was danger in that tone, and in the sense of inevitability that arose when St. Louis grabbed a 3-1 series lead. Or perhaps Barry Zito reached deep within himself on Friday, dug out a signature performance, and made it his night.
Despite six fewer regular-season wins, St. Louis remains the stronger club in the series, even after losing Game 5, 5-0, to San Francisco. But now, the defending champs must win it in California, away from the red shirts and Clydesdales. Game 6 is Sunday night in San Fran, with Chris Carpenter facing Ryan Vogelsong in a rematch of Game 2.
Cards manager Mike Matheny and third baseman David Freese saw Zito, not the distraction of imminent clinching, as the problem. “Just today, we had a guy come out and pitch us tough,” Matheny said.
Freese concurred. “At no point were we ahead of ourselves,” he said. “We just got beat by a great outing.”
Several early moments, appearing small but looming over a low-scoring game, tilted in San Francisco’s favor. The Cards’ job was to maul the often-dicey Zito before the Giants could draw a breath. In the first two innings, this seemed possible, before Zito began his sleepy 84-mph dominance, which lasted an improbable 7.2 innings.
With one out in the first, Carlos Beltran, a late addition to the lineup despite knee and hamstring issues that clearly still haunted him, singled to left and stole second base. He did not score. The failure in the second inning was more egregious, after Yadier Molina led off with a single to center, and Freese followed with a double to right.
Busch Stadium started bumping, the sellout crowd knowing that its team was a knock or two away from triggering the victory romp. But in a significant at-bat, Daniel Descalso waved at a fastball up and away, striking out and altering the balance of the inning. Two batters later, St. Louis starter and loser Lance Lynn grounded into a double play, turning delicious opportunity into a big uh-oh; the Cardinals had stranded three runners in scoring position in the first two innings. In the playoffs, teams rue moments such as those, even if they are swept underneath the game’s ultimate highlights and result.
Lynn was at the center of the next big mistake, which created a major inning for the Giants. Marco Scutaro and Pablo Sandoval began the fourth with consecutive singles to right; when Buster Posey struck out, that seemed like a major moment of stabilization for Lynn. And it would have been, had this not happened: Lynn got Hunter Pence to bounce back to him, then threw to second with a double play in mind. The toss hit second base and went into the outfield, allowing Scutaro to score.
“I don’t mind him being aggressive if he’s got that play (at second),” Matheny said. “To do it over again, I’m sure he’d like to take the easy out at first base.”
Lynn was cooked, and soon began bleeding runs, before being asked to leave. Zito, the famous free agent disaster who won 15 games this year, did the opposite, offering his team what he considered the signature start of his career. “This was probably the biggest one,” he said.
Indeed. On to San Francisco.