1981

It’s sure looking like we’ll be watching game 6 on Sunday. Turning point for the Giants? Maybe, but they’ve dug themselves into a hole where one bad game ends the season. And they haven’t been all that great at home…

1982

Giants have their two best pitchers going in games 6 and 7. Cardinals have Kyle Lohse and a very un-sharp Chris Carpenter.

If I bet on baseball, I’d bet the Giants to be heading to the WS.

1983

I like their chances better than I did yesterday, but I’m not sure I’d go that far. The Giants are a team that are absolutely capable of 9 innings of pure hackery at the plate. Still, if they can hold on tomorrow then it’s really anybody’s series to win. These teams seem to match up pretty well.

1984

Definitely best this year. Perhaps even his whole career with the Giants.

1985

Tonight he did the same thing he did last game - got stuck in a rut throwing the ball to the outside to lefties. My opinion on Lynn is that he is a sharp pitcher and he has great stuff (which was in evidence early in the game), but he’s super-fragile mentally.

Once he goes off the rails, he can’t get back on.

The botched second base coverage was what killed things tonight. Blame the throw if you want; Descalso should have been at second when that ball was hit to the pitcher. If he had been there, double play ball and there’s no runs scored in the 4th.

But Matheny still hasn’t figured out pulling a struggling starter early enough in the playoffs. The minute Lynn’s pitches started drifting to the outside and the walks started happening, they should have been in red alert mode and warming someone up ASAP.

1986

Yes, I know. :)

I’m just anxious for the CS to be over with, the opponent to be confirmed and focus to start on the WS.

1987

Not sure what you were looking for from Lynn there in the fourth.

First two hits were hit very sharply. Line drives.

Then he struck out Buster Posey.

He got Hunter Pence to ground one softly back to the pitcher. Had Pete Kozma covered second like he was supposed to, perhaps it’s an inning ending GIDP (Pence runs well. I think he’d have beaten out the back end and it would have been a fielder’s choice.)

Brandon Belt hit a weak, soft humpback pop to second for out number 2.

Blanco walked.

Crawford hit a 7 hop ground ball that found a hole up the middle.

Zito laid down a beautiful bunt single.

Honestly, other than the first two fellows in that inning, no one hit the ball well or hard against Lance Lynn in the fourth. The difference between why the Giants won and the Cardinals lost–other than hitting, of course–is that the Giants played superlative defense throughout the game and the Cardinals absolutely did not.

1988

Defense was the difference in game two as well. I like San Francisco’s chances in the next couple games, but I give the edge to the Cardinals unless Buster Posey returns to form.

1989

News of a big three way trade is breaking.

Heath Bell and Cash from Marlins to the DBacks
Chris Young from the DBacks to the A’s
Cliff Pendington and 3b prospect Yordy Cabrera from the A’s to the Marlins

And A-Rod not involved.

1990

But what about Jeter?!?!?!

Seriously, though, media silliness dreams aside A-Rod isn’t going anywhere.

1991

The A’s really do love trading with the D-Backs. That’s like the third or fourth trade they had within the last couple of years.

1992

The Red Sox made a deal with the Blue Jays to acquire John Farrell as their next manager. Interesting to see this kind of thing happening a lot in the last few years.

Edit: So the official details are that Boston gets Farrell and reliever David Carpenter and Toronto gets infielder Mike Aviles.

1993

Goddamn…Vogelsong’s on fire so far. 5 K’s, 2 innings!

1994

Unless something dramatic changes, I’m not sure the Cardinals are going to get a hit tonight. Totally overmatched.

1995

Interesting that Carpenter is still in the game down 5-0. Perhaps Matheny is thinking that he might as well conserve his bullpen for game 7.

1996

Interesting stat seen on Twitter: Marco Scutaro is batting .500 since the Holliday slide.

1997

I admit, I kind of tuned out this series after game 4, assuming the Cards would tank 5 and 6 and probably the first 8 innings of game 7 to set up yet another crazy comeback. :)

Bring on the 9th inning of Game 7!

1998

Vogelsong pitched a hell of a game today. Cardinals fielding has been shaky in all of their losses; 10 unearned runs vs. 8 earned. No unearned runs in their wins. One official error tonight, but I counted one mishandled ball by Freese and at least 3 groundballs that were definitely fieldable.

1999

So… The Slide could be the turning point in this series. Friggin’ Holliday.

— Alan

2000

Uh, yeah. Turned it right around, except for the Cardinals winning the next two games after that. Scutaro has been punishing the baseball since SF acquired him at the end of July, it’s just that no one seems to have noticed outside the NL West until now. ;)

The series didn’t really didn’t have a “turning point”; what it had was the Cardinals–who aren’t as good as the Giants–reverting to doing the dumb stuff they’ve done all season.

I honestly think that the thing that’s hurt this team the most in 2012 was the way 2011 ended. The entire lineup will goes days and days taking the most undisciplined, little-leaguer approach to at bats that I’ve ever seen. They all want the David Freese offseason treatment, and as such you see them get into these protracted slumps where they just chase and chase and chase.

For instance, tonight Jon Jay leads off by working the count to 2-0. Vogelsong has to come over the plate to him, and Jay misses his pitch and eventually strikes out…but he makes the pitcher throw him 5. Matt Carpenter comes up and coaxes a walk on 3-2. Nice ABs by both fellows.

And then up comes one of the problems all year, and Carlos Beltran swings at strike one out of the zone, fouls off strike two, and then chases out of the zone for strike 3. Beltran has just seen a guy throw 11 pitches, 6 of which were out of the zone. And so of course how you want to approach that is to go up there jacking for the fences on the first pitch you see.

Allen Craig then comes up and strikes out on 5 pitches, chasing badly on a curve out of the zone by taking a huge from-the-heels cut at it. At that point I could see that the Cardinals were in Dinger Swing mode, and they were in trouble. Their adventures in the field were going to happen, and you saw the Giants take disciplined, smart at bats the entire game.

That approach by the Cardinals hitters is how they got smoked by Barry Zito in Game 5, too. I really think that to hit Zito, you almost have to approach him as if you were facing a guy with a bad knuckleball. Try to hit everything back up the middle or opposite field, and you’ll rake Barry Zito 'til he cries. Try to pull everything and take massive hacks and it’s like trying to hit a flying house fly with a butter knife. Doesn’t work.

Been a good series, but the Giants I think have proven that they’re probably the better team in ever facet except perhaps the bullpen.