San Francisco Giants thrash St. Louis Cardinals with 7-1 win in Game 2 of NLCS – NLCS Update
San Francisco Giants staged a comeback in the National League Championship Series on Monday, October 15, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 7-1. Marco Scutaro smashed a two-run single in the Giants four-run fourth to pave the way for San Francisco's resounding win at AT&T Park, tying the best-of-seven games 1-all.
It was the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter who was taken to task by the Giants' batters and scoring five runs in his four innings. Giants’ Ryan Vogelsong, on the other hand, surrendered only one run in his seven impressive innings with four strike-outs.
Giants began the game with Angel Pagan’s solo homer in the very first inning to give the team a 1-0 lead. Chris Carpenter’s double to deep centre in the second inning levelled the score, but the Cardinals could not quite do anything offensively afterwards as Vogelsong kept them at bay.
Brandon Crawford’s hit made it 2-1 for the Giants as the game progressed. But it was in the same inning that saw a collision wherein Matt Holliday slid into Scutaro in attempt to prevent the double by crushing his left leg.
Scutaro then had to exit the game as he was in pain. "As I watched it live it looked like it was a hard slide," manager Mike Matheny said. "It didn't go out of the baseline to get him. Once again, I haven't looked at it again, but we teach our guys to go hard. Play the game clean, play it hard, not try and hurt anybody."
"I hated to see that it ended up that way. That's not how we play the game. But we do go hard, but within the rules," He added.
With 5-1 lead by the end of the fourth inning, it was Vogelsong who maintained the team’s lead with his exceptionally effective pitches. Ryan Theriot then scored a two-run RBI in the eighth to take the Giants lead to 7-1.
Jeremy Affeldt pitched a scoreless eighth and then Sergio Romo came to pitch a scoreless ninth to finish Game 2 with a 7-1 victory for the Giants, tying the NLCS 1-all.
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