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发帖数: 10208 | 1 The last time the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants met in
the playoffs, in the 2012 National League Championship Series, the Cardinals
jumped out to a three-games-to-one lead and had a chance to close out the
series at home. Then the Giants stormed back, winning the last three games
in swift, dominating fashion.
John Mozeliak, the Cardinals’ general manager, recalled that series, the
collapse and the aftermath during batting practice Sunday evening. The
Cardinals did not sound any proverbial alarms. They did not hold any
emergency meetings. They saw no reason to tweak their philosophy, often
called the Cardinal Way.
They made the World Series the next year.
Mozeliak said he focused on building the team as best he could, but the
postseason often gives way to randomness, depending on who is healthy, who
is pitching well, or who is hot at the right time.
The Cardinals’ dramatic 5-4 victory against the Giants later Sunday night.
The Cardinals lost an early lead that they regained on two
home runs only to lose the lead again in the top of the ninth when the
Giants scored from second on a wild pitch.
But with one more home run — a solo shot from Kolten Wong in the bottom of
the ninth — the Cardinals evened the N.L.C.S. at a game apiece. Game 3 is
Tuesday in San Francisco.
The Cardinals had hit the fewest home runs in the N.L. during the regular
season, when they had four game-winning home runs. But the long ball helped
erase several missed opportunities for them on Sunday.
The Cardinals had two runners on, with no outs, in the fourth inning, with
Yadier Molina at the plate. Matt Carpenter had given them a 1-0 lead with a
homer in the third, and this seemed to be their chance to put the game out
of reach. But Manager Mike Matheny allowed Molina to bunt with the bottom of
the order coming up, and the move backfired.
The Giants countered by intentionally walking the next batter, Wong, to load
the bases. Randal Grichuk followed with a run-scoring single to right. But
Jake Peavy got Lance Lynn to fly out to shallow right field, not deep enough
to score the runner from third. Peavy then got Carpenter to fly out on a 2-
0 cutter.
The Giants have seemed to be the team catching all the breaks in the
postseason — scoring runs in unorthodox ways, winning games that appeared
out of their reach — and this looked like another fortunate turn for them.
They outlasted the Washington Nationals in the longest game by time in
playoff history — 6 hours 23 minutes — by rallying in the ninth inning and
hitting a go-ahead homer a few hours later in the 18th. They clinched that
division series with a 3-2 win, and all three runs scored without the ball
leaving the infield: on a bases-loaded walk, a bases-loaded groundout, and a
wild pitch.
Entering Sunday, they had scored seven runs in their last three games, and
six had come without a hit.
“Luck, it’s a beautiful thing,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said before
Sunday’s game. “You take it if it goes your way.”
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The Giants’ luck arrived Sunday in the fifth. With one out and a runner on
first, Travis Ishikawa lifted a fly ball to left-center field. The Cardinals
’ Jon Jay sprinted over, launched toward the ball, and grabbed it. For a
moment, the play conjured memories of Jim Edmonds’s diving catch in the
2004 N.L.C.S. But as Jay landed, the ball popped out. The Giants runners
advanced to second and third.
The next batter, pinch-hitter Joaquin Arias, broke his bat as he softly
grounded out to second to score a run.
The Giants seemed to be gaining confidence. Pablo Sandoval hit a two-out
double in the sixth, and Hunter Pence singled him home to tie the at 2-2. In
the seventh, Gregor Blanco singled home Brandon Crawford to give the Giants
a 3-2 lead.
The crowd had gotten eerily quiet, when Matheny called on the rookie Oscar
Taveras to pinch-hit in the seventh. The Cardinals’ offense had been quiet
since the fourth inning, and Molina had since exited the game on what looked
like an innocent play. He hit a ground ball that led to a double play and
hunched over near the home plate area.
He was said to have a strained left oblique, and Tony Cruz replaced him
behind the plate.
Taveras, the 22-year-old from the Dominican Republic, was considered among
the top prospects in baseball. He did not disappoint, hitting a solo home
run to tie the game, 3-3.
The Giants called on their own rookie, September call-up Hunter Strickland,
to pitch the eighth. Strickland got ahead 1-2, and fired a 97-mile-per-hour
fastball, and Adams muscled it for a home run to right field.
The game should have ended easily then, when the Cardinals brought on their
closer, Trevor Rosenthal, for the ninth. But the Giants responded with one
last blow. Andrew Susac and Juan Perez singled. Then facing Joe Panik,
Rosenthal bounced a 3-2 fastball well in front of the plate, and pinch-
runner Matt Duffy raced around to score from second.
Wong, who got picked off at first base to end a World Series game last
October, swung at the second pitch he saw in the bottom of the inning, a
changeup from Sergio Romo, to end it. |
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