Game 2 of the National League Championship Series seemed like a repeat of the opener. A New York Mets starter was great, with Noah Syndergaard replacing Matt Harvey. An excellent Chicago Cubs starter didn’t seem to pitch badly, but left with a mediocre line. This time it was Jake Arrieta, rather than Jon Lester, who […]
TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage reviews the three games from Los Angeles, and then looks ahead to Friday night, and possibly Saturday night in St. Louis…
The end of the road in the National League was anti-climactic last night in San Francisco, but no one in Pac-Bell Park was complaining. The rains pounded the field in the top of the ninth and St. Louis batted, and everyone just hoped the Giants could get the clinching outs without an interminable delay. Finally, Matt Holliday hit a towering pop-up that ended up, appropriately enough, in the glove of Marco Scutaro and San Francisco’s 9-0 win was complete.
For the second game in a row, the San Francisco Giants warded off elimination in the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals and for the second time in a row it wasn’t close. The Giants, back in front of a wild home crowd, jumped Chris Carpenter for five runs in the first two innings, then starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong took over from there. Vogelsong worked seven strong innings, won his second game of the series 6-1 and put himself atop the list of candidates for NCLS MVP if his team can close it in Game 7 tonight.
It’s been a long time coming for San Francisco Giants fans to see the kind of performance they got from Barry Zito last night in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Zito, who has been mostly a disappointment since signing a big-money free-agent contract following the 2006 season, reached back and found some of his old self.
The Zito who won the 2002 Cy Young Award or who outdueled Johan Santana back in 2006 when both were still aces in the American League playoffs, made an appearance last night in St. Louis. Zito worked 7.2 IP of shutout baseball with the Giants season on the line and made sure this series will go back to San Francisco thanks to Friday night’s 5-0 win.
Miguel Cabrera came to the plate in the fourth inning with one on and one out, as he faced C.C. Sabathia in a showdown of the stars in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series. It was already looking like Detroit’s day—though their lead was only 2-0, the Tigers had five this and two walks, while the Yanks’ normally reliable Mark Teixeira had committed an error. Not to mention the Yanks had gone 12-up, 12-down and that 2-zip lead looked as solid as it would in hockey.
Ryan Vogelsong has to be enjoying these MLB playoffs. In his first start of the postseason, the veteran pitcher was brilliant in winning a pitcher’s duel in Cincinnati that kept the San Francisco season alive. The stakes weren’t quite as high last night, but they were close. The Giants were a loss away from going […]
A key player who struggled in the Division Series and had to be lifted early saw his chances for redemption in the League Championship Series go by the boards, at least for now. I’m not talking about Alex Rodriguez or anyone in the New York Yankee lineup, but San Francisco Giants’ starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner, who turned in his second straight shaky outing of the playoffs in a Game 1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals that begins our recap of Sunday’s action in the MLB playoffs…
The National League Championship Series starts Sunday night in San Francisco, as the Giants play host to the St. Louis Cardinals. The teams that have won the last two World Series are fresh off winning all-or-nothing Game 5s on the road in the Division Series.
TheSportsNotebook previews the St. Louis-San Francisco NLCS matchup by looking at each team’s ability to get on base and hit for power, along with their starting pitching and bullpen. Finally we round it out with some historical context, the Las Vegas betting angles and a final prediction.