Giants' pitcher Madison Bumgarner got the best of Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals on Saturday night. Bumgarner's 7.2 scoreless innings lead the Giants to the 3-0 shutout win over the Cardinals in game 1 of the NLCS. It was expected to be a pitchers' duel, where the first pitcher to make a mistake would be in trouble.
It was the Cardinals' ace who would make the early mistake, and the Cardinals' offense could not make up for it against Bumgarner. The troubles for Wainwright began in the second, when he surrendered a lead-off double to Pablo Sandoval, followed by walking Hunter Pence. Brandon Belt would then follow with a single to load the bases for the Giants. Wainwright was able to get Brandon Crawford on strikes, but Travis Ishikawa singled on a pop-up to short, scoring a run for a 1-0 San Francisco lead. Gregor Blanco would then reach on an infield single 2 batters later to score another, and make it 2-0.
After the bad luck inning for Wainwright, he faced more issues in the third, helping the Giants manufacture a run. After singles by Buster Posey and Sandoval, Pence grounded in to a force out to put runners at the corners. Belt stepped in and sent a fly ball to center field, deep enough to score Posey from third, for a 3-0 lead.
That is all the scoring the Giants would need, as Bumgarner pitched in to the 8th, giving up just 4 hits, while striking out 7. Sergio Romo got the last out of the 8th for the hold, with Santiago Casilla pitching a perfect 9th for the save. Wainwright's struggling night ended with a line of 4.2 innings, giving up 6 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), striking out 2, and walking 3. The Cardinals look to rebound tonight in Game 2, with Lance Lynn opposing Jake Peavy at 8:00 on FOX Sports 1.
It was the Cardinals' ace who would make the early mistake, and the Cardinals' offense could not make up for it against Bumgarner. The troubles for Wainwright began in the second, when he surrendered a lead-off double to Pablo Sandoval, followed by walking Hunter Pence. Brandon Belt would then follow with a single to load the bases for the Giants. Wainwright was able to get Brandon Crawford on strikes, but Travis Ishikawa singled on a pop-up to short, scoring a run for a 1-0 San Francisco lead. Gregor Blanco would then reach on an infield single 2 batters later to score another, and make it 2-0.
After the bad luck inning for Wainwright, he faced more issues in the third, helping the Giants manufacture a run. After singles by Buster Posey and Sandoval, Pence grounded in to a force out to put runners at the corners. Belt stepped in and sent a fly ball to center field, deep enough to score Posey from third, for a 3-0 lead.
That is all the scoring the Giants would need, as Bumgarner pitched in to the 8th, giving up just 4 hits, while striking out 7. Sergio Romo got the last out of the 8th for the hold, with Santiago Casilla pitching a perfect 9th for the save. Wainwright's struggling night ended with a line of 4.2 innings, giving up 6 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), striking out 2, and walking 3. The Cardinals look to rebound tonight in Game 2, with Lance Lynn opposing Jake Peavy at 8:00 on FOX Sports 1.
