Nightengale: Cardinals put their season on the brink

SAN FRANCISCO - St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams, still dressed, trudged slowly Wednesday night across the clubhouse.

He looked up, and there was a mob of reporters awaiting him at his locker.

He knew what they wanted, and for five minutes softly answered the questions, painfully, one after another.

The Cardinals' horror show continued, losing 6-4 to the San Francisco Giants, and it was back-to-back plays in the sixth inning that could haunt Adams all winter.

The Giants are up 3-1 in this best-of-seven National League Championship Series, and can advance to their third World Series in the last five years with a victory Thursday night with ace Madison Bumgarner on the mound.

It's not a pretty picture for the folks in St. Louis, who were dreaming of that I-70 rematch against the Kansas City Royals.

"We've been down before,'' says Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, who doubled and homered. "Absolutely, we could do it again.''

Besides, the Cardinals say, it would be sweet revenge for the 2012 NLCS when they had a 3-1 lead, and watched the Giants reel off three consecutive victories and win the World Series title.

Yet, they retreated to their downtown San Francisco hotel Wednesday night, knowing this series should be tied, blowing a 4-1 lead and an opportunity to have the Giants on the ropes.

And no one felt worse than Adams, who was entrusted to make two plays to preserve their 4-3 lead in the sixth inning, only to throw the ball away twice, turning it into a 6-4 deficit from which they could never recover.

It all started to unravel when Marco Gonzalez, the Cardinals' fourth pitcher of the night, opened the inning by walking Travis Ishikawa and giving up a single to Brandon Crawford. Pinch-hitter Matt Duffy came in, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, and the Giants had runners on second and third.

Gregor Blanco, who beat the Cardinals in Game 3 when reliever Randy Choate threw the ball away, this time hit a two-hopper to Adams. Adams stumbled, grabbed the ball, and threw off-balance. It bounced to Tony Cruz. Everyone was safe, and the game was tied.

"Fast runner on third, I was throwing on the run,'' Adams says. "I should have made the throw, though.''

Then, along came the encore.

Joe Panic hit a routine grounder to Adams. He fielded it cleanly, and stepped on the first-base bag for one out. Yet, instead of holding onto the ball and checking Crawford at third base, he threw wildly to second base. Crawford, who wasn't running on the play, scampered home, and the party started at AT&T Park. Buster Posey compounded the blunders by producing a run the old-fashioned way, on a single to left.

"I should have just touched first and checked home,'' Adams says. "They're both fast runners, so I tried to get the ball out as quickly as possible, and make the throws.''

It was all the Giants needed, suffocating the life out of the Cardinals.

"That's what good teams do,'' Adams says. "They capitalize on mistakes.''

The Cardinals, who were shut out the final six innings by the Giants' bullpen, and 9 1/3 innings the last two games, were done for the night.

They may be done for the season.

When you knock the opposing starter, Ryan Vogelsong, out of the game after three innings, and have a 4-1 lead in the third inning, and still lose, you got some problems. Yusmeiro Petit stepped in and pitched three shutout innings. He was followed by five other relievers. And all the Cardinals managed was four singles off the bullpen.

"The difference in the game was Petit coming into the game,'' third baseman Matt Carpenter says, "and shutting us down. We had a lot of momentum. The offense was taking real good at-bats.

"We weren't able to do much after that.''

The Giants, 29-11 in their last three postseasons, once again did nothing fancy, but just hung around, putting pressure on the opposition, and watching them self-destruct.

The Giants scored three runs without the benefit of a hit Thursday, and have now scored 12 runs in their last six games without a hit.

And you wonder why the Giants' next flight to Missouri may be re-routed to Kansas City, and not St. Louis, to face the Royals in the World Series.

"We've got to find some different ways to get runs across the board,'' says Giants manager Bruce Bochy, whose team has gone 232 plate appearances without a homer. "Granted, you know, we've gotten a couple of breaks, but at the same time, we've done some good things.''

Yeah, like winning. Again and again. And again.

If the Cardinals are going to survive, and make sure they're not flying back to St. Louis alone, they're going to need their ace, Adam Wainwright, to become the Wainwright that dominated the regular season. This was the guy who went 20-9 with a 2.38 ERA, and likely will finish third in the Cy Young balloting.

Yet, the Adam Wainwright that has shown up in the postseason is hardly the same guy. He has yielded an 8.00 ERA and .405 batting average, failing to make it past the fifth inning in his two starts.

Wainwright insists he is physically fine, but the numbers indicate otherwise.

"More than anything,'' Wainwright says, "what I want to get back to is throwing quality games in the postseason. I don't want to get a bad wrap for not being a good playoff pitcher. That's the time I want to shine the most.

"That's the time every pitcher wants to shine the most.

"I know I'm capable of that.''

Certainly, the Cardinals could use a little pick-me-up. Wainwright is not only their best pitcher, but their team leader.

"They don't need any motivation,'' Wainwright says. '"I don't need to pull these guys aside and give them a big "Rudy'' pep talk.

"They are prepared and wanting to win.''

Matheny is convinced that Wainwright will be just fine, and says, he can't wait to watch the real Adam Wainwright show up for Game 5.

"He's just one of the very few that is so talented,'' Matheny says, "but so motivated too, to constantly find that next gear, that next level.''

Yet, the Cardinals appear to be stuck in neutral, and need someone desperately to jump-start them.

"We got the right guy on the mound,'' Cardinals catcher A.J. Pierznyski says. "There's nobody else we'd rather have out there.''

Yet, this is a team that can't seem to win on the road, going 13-26 in NLCS road games, the second-worst record in LCS history.

And the Giants are a team that can't seem to lose at home in the postseason, going 15-5, the best record of any LCS team in history.

"You don't get this far by being lucky," Bochy said. "You have to be good, and we have a talented club here.''

You don't need to tell the Cardinals.

They're seeing it for themselves.

GALLERY: Giants-Cardinals NLCS