Tune in at 4:07 PM ET as the Giants take on the Cardinals in Game Three of the NLCS. Rob Sturney will be liveblogging for your enjoyment.
I'm Rob Sturney here with The Score's continuing coverage of the MLB League Championships. Today we're in St. Louis, Missouri's Busch Stadium for game three of the NLCS. It's tied one game a piece. Matt Cain squares off against Kyle Lohse.
Cain was 16-5 with an ERA of 2.79 and 193 K in the regular season, while Lohse went 16-3 with 143 K with a 2.86 ERA. Cain, of course had that perfect game on June 13 versus the Astros.
Lineups:
Giants:
Pagan CF
Scutaro 2B
Sandoval 3B
Posey C
Pence RF
Belt 1B
Blanco LF
Crawford SS
Cain P
Cardinals:
Jay CF
Beltran RF
Holliday LF
Crain 1B
Molina C
Freese 3B
Descalso 2B
Kozma SS
Lohse P
As you can see, Scutaro is in the lineup after he was scythed down by Matt Holliday in San Francisco. We'll see how far that whole kerfuffle goes.
Cain is the highest paid right hander in the game with a 6-year deal worth $127.5 million. He's got a 4-seam, a cutter for righties and changeup for lefties, a curve and more 2-seamers over the last year or so. He went 6-0 in the his final 10 starts.
Lohse throws a lot of sinkers and his out ball is the slider. He'll be a free agent in November. His last outing versus Washington was a no decision after beating the Braves in the wild card game. Versus the Nats he went 7 innings, giving up 2 hits and an earned run while fanning five.
Beltran is having a fine post season: .414, 12 hits including five doubles, 3 home runs and 6 RBI's. Cain will face Jay, Beltran and Holliday in the first inning.
The skies are looking a little dark and foreboding.
Of course we've got the last two World Champions in this series. It looks likely that Detroit will be waiting for the winner of the NLCS.
I tend to keep that to myself so that I can stay impartial and objective in the eyes of the viewers. But I will say I think it'll be a tighter game than Game 1, when the Giants tried to come back from being down 6-0, and Game 2 with its lopsided 7-1 scoreline.
I love playoff baseball because of how tight it can be, that small ball vibe, the tricky pitcher v batter match-ups. Great stuff.
I bet we'll see Affeldt again too!
We'll be seeing the first pitch pretty soon here.
Yes, I wonder if Holliday will get plunked below the waist.
I should be on time. The threat of rain may have put this back just a few minutes.
So Lohse will get Pagan, Scutaro and Sandoval first. Pagan had a lead off homerun in game two.
We've had 32 hits and 18 runs in the first two games.
Oh, boy. Yes, I believe THIS is game three!
Holliday and Scutaro look to have an understanding now . . .
Pagan fouls away his first offering. The Cards are in their whites, the Giants in their greys.
Another foul brings Pagan to 1-2 before he strikes out. That's one away.
Scutaro brings his sore hip to the plate so Lohse picks in the inside corner. Scutaro couldn't call time out before the pitch so he fouls. Then a fastball inside creates a pop up to Jay in shallow centre field.
Sandoval gets a change up and slider and singles down the middle.
Sandoval on first and two out for Posey. The catcher is hitting .185 in the post season with 2 home runs and 5 RBI's. He's at 1-1.
Tonight's the night, Between Hunter Pence and his inspiring pep talks and Posey's big time hits Mr grandslam. This is a orange october it was in 2010 and will be in 2012. I am a Texas Rangers fan and i have had 100% respect for the Giants ever since they beat us in the world series. speaking from all of the Giants fan nation, you have made us proud we need this win guys tonight we are the greatest baseball team in the world!
