This game’s in danger of getting out of hand.
Giants score 5 runs in 3rd, now have commanding 7-0 lead in Game 7
In the top of the third, Jon Jay led off against Matt Cain with a base hit. But three batters later, the Cardinals' mini-rally died when Allen Craig shot a line drive into left-center field that Gregor Blanco was able to track down in full stride to end the frame.
In the bottom of the third, Marco Scutaro led off against Kyle Lohse with his 13th hit in 26 NLCS at-bats, and just a moment later scooted to third base when Pablo Sandoval poled Lohse's first pitch into the left-field corner for a double. That got Joe Kelly working in the bullpen, and Buster Posey to the plate.
Posey was just 3 for 26 in this series, but that didn’t help Lohse much, as Posey drew a walk to load the bases.
And that was it for Lohse, who lasted only two-plus innings in the biggest game of his career.
So in came Kelly to face Hunter Pence, who's been so ineffective in this postseason.
Pence, like Scutaro and Sandoval before him, picked on the first pitch he saw. And then came not one, but two defensive miscues of the sort that have so bedeviled the Cardinals lately. Somehow, shortstop Pete Kozma misplayed a likely double play into a single ...
... breaking to his right when the ball was actually hit to his left; granted, Kozma had a pretty damned good excuse: the ball actually hit Pence’s shattered bat three times. Has anyone EVER seen this sight before?
And when the ball reached the outfield, Jon Jay made it worse; in his haste to pick up the ball, it got past him and Posey scored all the way from first base.
Oh, there was more. There was an infield single, a walk, an ill-advised throw home by Kozma, a poor throw by Kozma that might have cost the Giants a double play, another walk, a pitching change, an Edward Mujica, and an inning-ending out line-out.
When the dust had finally cleared, the Giants had sent 11 men to the plate and scored five runs.
The game isn’t over. Close, though. Heading to the fourth, it’s Giants 7, Cardinals 0.
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