Bumgarner shuts down Cardinals, Giants lead NLCS 1-0
ST. LOUIS – Breaking down Game 1 of the NL Championship Series at Busch Stadium:
Box score: Giants 3, Cardinals 0, Giants lead series, 1-0
***
The final: Much like he did in shutting out the Pittsburgh Pirates in the wild-card game, Madison Bumgarner muzzled the St. Louis hitters to put the Giants in the driver's seat in the series. Bumgarner tossed 7 2/3 innings of four-hit ball with a walk and seven strikeouts, getting into a jam just once. He now owns the record for most consecutive postseason shutout innings pitched on the road with 26 2/3.
San Francisco banged out eight hits but was also helped by the uncharacteristically sloppy Cardinals. Third baseman Matt Carpenter's fielding error in the second inning allowed the Giants to extend their lead to 2-0, and Kolten Wong's inability to handle a potential double-play grounder by Hunter Pence in the third facilitated another San Francisco run.
The Giants did most of their damage against Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright in the second inning, loading the bases and scoring twice. He lasted only 4 2/3 innings and yielded all three Giants runs (one unearned). Only one of the runs scored on a hit. The others came in on a sacrifice fly and Carpenter's miscue.
***
State of the Series: Most visiting teams are happy to gain a split of the first two games of a playoff series. The Giants are guaranteed of returning home with at least that much, and will try for more Sunday night.
Two highly emotional pitchers, Jake Peavy and Lance Lynn, will take the mound for Game 2. Both have enjoyed great success in the regular season but have spotty track records in the postseason.
Peavy, the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner while with the San Diego Padres, had not won a playoff game until beating the Washington Nationals last week. His 7.39 ERA in six postseason starts reflects a pitcher who has been shelled more often than not. However, he held the Nationals to two hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings in helping the Giants win Game 1 of the Division Series. Peavy is 3-4 with a 2.97 ERA in nine career starts against the Cardinals but did not face them this year.
Lynn has been with the Cardinals through their run of four consecutive appearances in the NLCS, but while he's 49-28 in the regular season, his October performances have been inconsistent. Lynn, 5-4 with a 4.57 ERA in 22 postseason games (six starts), committed a critical throwing error in Game 5 of the 2012 NLCS, a 5-0 Giants victory that turned the series in their favor. He's 0-3 with a 7.98 ERA in three career starts against San Francisco, including an outing this season in which he gave up eight hits and seven runs (four earned) in 3 1/3 innings.
***
Game 1 Pivot Point: The way Bumgarner was dealing, it was going to be hard to beat him playing a clean game. The Cardinals didn't come close. Carpenter's bases-loaded error with two outs in the first was the most egregious mistake, letting a second run score and extending the inning. Wong's misplay was not ruled an error because shortstop Jhonny Peralta caught the ricochet and got a force at second, but the chance for a double play was ruined.
***
Star Turn: Journeyman Travis Ishikawa, who began the season with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was released in April, drove in the game's first run with a soft single and contributed another single and a sparkling catch in left field. Ishikawa, a first baseman who had played 11 games in the outfield before the playoffs, is starting in left against right-handers as Michael Morse continues to work his way back after missing nearly a month with a strained oblique muscle. Ishikawa had four hits in 23 postseason at-bats before Saturday.
***
Man of the Moment: Bumgarner. He keeps putting up October zeroes with stunning efficiency. Bumgarner has become a master at quieting road crowds, hardly allowing opposing hitters as much as a threat. The Cardinals didn't put two runners on base at the same time until the seventh inning, when they got back-to-back singles with one out. Bumgarner retired the next two hitters, striking out pinch-hitter Tony Cruz with runners on second and third to close out the inning. That extended Bumgarner's streak of postseason scoreless innings on the road to 26, a record that grew in the seventh.
***
Needing a Mulligan: Wainwright. He didn't pitch nearly as poorly as in his Division Series start, but his performance was hardly ace-like. After a 1-2-3 first inning, the Giants put constant pressure on Wainwright, who didn't help his cause by walking three. This from a pitcher who averaged two walks per nine innings during the season. The three-time All-Star labored most of the night, throwing 51 pitches through two innings and 98 by the time he was lifted in the fifth.
***
On-base machine: Pablo Sandoval got the Giants' second-inning rally going with a double, one of three hits on the night for him. The notoriously free-swinging Sandoval also walked. He's now batting .333 for his career in 28 postseason games.
***
Manager's Special: The Giants' Bruce Bochy resisted the urge to beef up his lineup by starting Morse, reasoning that he was too rusty both at the plate and defensively. Despite his limited experience in the outfield, Ishikawa made the decision pay off with a diving catch of a Yadier Molina liner in the fourth, in addition to the two hits and the RBI.
GALLERY: NLCS - CARDINALS vs. GIANTS