The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants faced off on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium in the rubber game of a three game series. The Giants tied the series up at 1-1 the night prior, when Ryan Vogelsong only allowed two hits as the Cardinals lost 2-0.
But once again, St. Louis won yet another series at home, when they beat the Giants 4-3 in another one-run battle.
For the series finale, the pitching match-up was Jaime Garcia (5-4, 1.57), and Matt Cain (2-3, 6.05).
In the bottom of the first inning, the Cardinals got on the board first, but not before an outstanding defensive play by San Francisco. With Stephen Piscotty at the plate, he launched a ball that had the distance to go over the wall, but centerfielder Juan Perez was there to leap over, and robbed Piscotty of a home run.
But that didn’t stop from them scoring in the inning. After a Jhonny Peralta double, catcher Yadier Molina hit a single to score Peralta and make it 1-0 Cardinals.
They added to that lead in the bottom of the third inning, when Piscotty, already robbed of a home run earlier, hit a solo shot deep to left field, as Perez could do nothing but watch. It was his second home run of the season, and gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
San Francisco was not able to get on the board until the fifth inning, when Cain scored Brandon Crawford on a sacrifice fly, to make it a 2-1 game. The following inning, Matt Duffy led off with a single. Next up was Buster Posey, who singled as well. Crawford then tied the game up by hitting a single, to score Duffy and make it 2-2.
That score became 3-2 Giants when Kelby Tomlinson scored Perez in the top of the seventh inning, giving the Giants the lead. Steve Cishek entered the game in the inning to relieve Garcia, whose final line of the game was: 6.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 Ks. And Cishek played a key role in keeping the game still at a one run difference.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals’ Tommy Pham led off the bottom of the inning with a single, which brought up Brandon Moss. Moss reached base on an infield single to put two on and none out for Peter Bourjos, who hit a critical sacrifice bunt, putting runners on second and third with one out. Matt Carpenter was able to tie the game by hitting into a fielder’s choice, scoring Pham.
However, the biggest moment in the game occurred in the bottom of the eighth inning. With Molina at the plate, and both teams still tied, he blasted a pitch deep to left field for not only his fourth home run of the year, but his 100th of his career. Shock waves ran throughout Busch Stadium, and Molina received a curtain call for the amazing moment.
Trevor Rosenthal entered in the top of the ninth, and shut down the Giants in order, as the Cardinals won 4-3.
With the win, St. Louis improved to 77-43, while San Francisco dropped to 65-55. Kevin Siegrist got the win, improving to 5-0 on the season, and Rosenthal earned his 38th save of the year.
(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
