Matt Cain had given San Francisco a strong start, firing 6⅔ innings of three-run ball, but the Giants’ bats looked as washed out as Busch Stadium’s muddy warning track.
Giants vs. Cardinals: San Francisco wastes ‘hour after hour of your life’
San Francisco couldn’t even take advantage of St. Louis’ greatest offensive threat, Carlos Beltran, leaving the game in the second inning. Instead, Beltran’s replacement, Matt Carpenter, smacked a hanging slider over the center-field wall for a two-run homer in the third inning. Cain gave up his third run in the seventh, just before the rain set in, but he held Matt Holliday and Allen Craig hitless, shutting down St. Louis’ third- and fourth-place hitters.
This loss was on the Giants’ hitters, and Grant Brisbee knows exactly who to blame:
But, yes, everything was Hunter Pence’s fault in Game 3, and he’s the worst hitter we’ve had to watch since Aaron Rowand played his way off the roster. The bloom is off the Hunter Pence rose, which is absolutely the strangest rose you’ve every seen. I think it had lips and long arms, and it twitched a lot, at least as far as roses go.
Pence was hitless in four plate appearances and left five men on base, showing zero plate discipline and flailing at pitches he had no chance of touching. The outfielder is hitting just .185/.214/.185 in the playoffs, yet manager Bruce Bochy penciled him in to hit behind Buster Posey. Adam Wainwright is scheduled to start for St. Louis in Game 4.
Read Brisbee’s full Game 3 reaction at McCovey Chronicles.
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