Cardinals take Game 1 from Giants, 6-4

Now six games in to the 2012 postseason, the Giants have yet to have a starting pitcher make it through the sixth inning. For blogger Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles, Game 1 was an indication that it may be time to shut down the very tired-looking Bumgarner:

Game 2 is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on FOX.

The Cardinals will send right-hander Chris Carpenter to the mound Monday night to take on the Giants in Game 2. Game time is set for 8 p.m. ET; the contest will be aired on FOX.

Beltrán’s homer knocked out Bumgarner, after which the Giants’ bullpen performed brilliantly; the Cardinals would not score again, and in fact would collect not even a single hit against a quintet of San Francisco reliefers. But enough damage had been done. Somehow, in six postseason games not a single Giant starter has posted a Quality Start. Then again, the Giants’ starting pitching isn’t what it once was.

Fortunately for the Cardinals, their relief corps was nearly as good as the Giants’. Both squads racked up 5⅓ innings of relief. Where the Giant reliefers limited the Cardinals to one walk and zero hits, the Cardinal reliefers limited the Giants to two walks and two hits. And, most important, zero runs.

The Cardinals went down quietly in the top of the eighth, with a pair of strikeouts sandwiched around a Pablo Sandoval. Santiago Casilla was the reliever on the mound, making his sixth appearance of the postseason (of a possible six games). He relieved Jeremy Affeldt who relieved Tim Lincecum, who relieved George Kontos.

On the other side, Joe Kelly relieved Lance Lynn, and Rzepczynski relieved Kelly before being relieved by Edward Mujica. Now Mitchell Boggs is in the game for the Cardinals.

Wow, we’re in the seventh-inning stretch already?

Sure, this game’s going to go long past three hours. But we’re used to that by now. With the arguments and the pitching changes and the longer commercial breaks, postseason baseball games give regular-season football games a run for their money, time-wise. And that’s not even counting extra innings.

The Giants surprised the world with a furious two-out rally to turn a 6-0 laugher into a 6-4 game, so when they started the bottom of the fifth with a single, it felt like something that could turn into something more substantial. Joe Kelly walked Buster Posey shortly after, putting two on with one out.

But right fielder/motivational speaker/onbaseophobe Hunter Pence popped out to shallow center. After Mike Matheny brought in Marc Rzepczynski to relieve Kelly, Brandon Belt flew out to end the inning.

Daniel Descalso hit .227/.303/.324 in the regular season -- just 18 players with more than 300 at-bats had a worse OPS+.

Pete Kozma had over 2,700 plate appearances in the minor leagues. He’s a career .236/.308/.344 hitter in the minors, including a .223/.286/.324 line in Triple-A.

The Giants were better at home during the 2012 season, winning 59 percent of their games at AT&T Park, compared to 57 percent on the road. But you’d never know it with their performance in the first two-plus games in San Francisco this postseason. They scored two runs in their two games against the Reds in the NLDS, including a two-hit shutout in Game 2.

And so far in Game 2, the Giants are hitless again, with Pablo Sandoval’s walk the only runner for the Giants through two innings. And as Yogi Berra used to say, “If your only base runner in a game is a walk from Pablo Sandoval ... good god.”

As you might recall, one year ago “David Freese” became a household name -- to the degree that a baseball player can become a household name if he’s not called to testify before Congress -- when he came up with big hit after big hit as the Cardinals unlikelinessed their way to a World’s Championship.

Well, he’s at it again.

The Giants used 112 different lineups throughout the regular season, but in the playoffs, they’ve mostly stuck with a standard lineup. For Game 1 of the National League Championship Series? More of the same:

1. Angel Pagan# - CF

2. Marco Scutaro - 2B

3. Pablo Sandoval# - 3B

4. Buster Posey - C

5. Hunter Pence - RF

6. Brandon Belt* - 1B

7. Gregor Blanco* - LF

8. Brandon Crawford* - SS

9. Madison Bumgarner - LHP