Cardinals 5, Giants 4
Kolten Wong lined a homer over the right-field wall to lead off the ninth inning as St. Louis defeated visiting San Francisco to even the National League Championship Series at one win apiece.
Wong’s blast off Sergio Romo (0-1) was one of four belted by the Cardinals as they snapped the Giants’ streak of seven straight postseason road victories. Matt Carpenter, pinch-hitter Oscar Taveras and Matt Adams also went deep and Seth Maness (1-0) retired Pablo Sandoval on a comebacker with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth in a series that resumes Tuesday in San Francisco for Game 3.
The Cardinals led 4-3 and were three outs away from victory before closer Trevor Rosenthal allowed back-to-back one-out singles by pinch-hitter Andrew Susac and Juan Perez. Gregor Blanco lined to shortstop for the second out before Rosenthal threw a wild pitch on ball four to Joe Panik, allowing pinch-runner Matt Duffy - who began the at-bat on second base - to race home with the tying run.
San Francisco had runners on second and third with one out in the top of the seventh when Blanco delivered a run-scoring ground single to right off Carlos Martinez to put the Giants ahead 3-2. Taveras tied it in the bottom of the inning with a solo shot to right off Jean Machi and Adams launched one of his own off Hunter Strickland with one out in the eighth to give St. Louis a 4-3 edge.
Carpenter homered in the third to get the Cardinals on the board and Randal Grichuk added an RBI single in the fourth to make it 2-0. A run-scoring grounder by pinch-hitter Joaquin Arias in the fifth halved the deficit before San Francisco knotted the score in the sixth, when Sandoval hit a two-out double and scored on Hunter Pence’s single.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Cardinals C Yadier Molina (strained oblique) departed after being unable to run out a double-play grounder in the sixth. … Giants RHP Jake Peavy allowed two runs and four hits in four innings, while St. Louis counterpart Lance Lynn gave up two runs and six hits in 5 2/3 frames. … Carpenter has belted four homers in six games this postseason after hitting eight in 158 regular-season contests.