Barry Zito warmed up inside as the celebration began without him. When he heard his name, he popped out for a quick look.

Then, back to his routine.

Zito spent all winter relishing in the World Series win – and now, he’s starting anew.

”I’m grateful,” he said. ”It was such a blessing. We’re not taking anything for granted.”

Zito saved San Francisco’s season by beating the Cardinals last fall in the NL championship series, then delivered again with a 1-0 victory over St. Louis on Friday as the Giants celebrated their latest World Series title throughout the home opener.

Zito outdueled Jake Westbrook in his season debut. The lefty also had a key sacrifice bunt that led to San Francisco’s run in the fourth, when Angel Pagan drew a bases-loaded walk.

”It was great for us to come out and match right up with the Cardinals again,” Zito said. ”It felt good to start with one of the best in the league.”

The Giants won their 15th straight game with Zito on the mound, including the postseason. He hasn’t lost since Aug. 2 against the New York Mets.

Facing constant criticism yet again for his girth, World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval made several nice stops at third base and ran down a foul popup to back Zito.

”The difference-maker was the defense,” Zito said. ”Pablo picked me up huge on a handful of plays.”

Zito blanked the Cardinals on three hits through the seventh. San Francisco’s starters have gone 26 innings without allowing an earned run so far.

”Unbelievable,” manager Bruce Bochy said. ”We know that’s amazing and we can’t expect that.”

Jeremy Affeldt pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Sergio Romo closed out the three-hitter with a clean ninth for his third save.

Zito earned a 5-0 victory in Game 5 of the NLCS at Busch Stadium that sent the series back to San Francisco, where the Giants won two more to reach the World Series. They went on to sweep the Detroit Tigers, with Zito winning the opener.

Zito began the year much like he did in his comeback season of 2012, when he pitched a shutout at Colorado.

The last time the Giants won 14 or more consecutive starts by a pitcher was Carl Hubbell’s 16 straight from July 17 to Sept. 30, 1936, according to STATS.

Fresh off San Francisco’s second title in three years, Bochy carried the World Series trophy out from an entrance in center field as the first Giant announced to the cheering sellout crowd of 41,581.

”I tried to punt it off,” Bochy said. ”I’ve been ball-hogging.”

The orange championship flag arrived by fire boat, with members of the San Francisco Fire Department handing it off to longtime fans to carry the final way through the outfield before several players took turns raising it onto the pole.

”It’s definitely hard not to look around, especially when they’re flying that flag,” Zito said.

After the 45-minute pregame ceremony, it was Zito’s turn. By the time he was done with the 102-pitch gem, he walked off to chants of ”Barry! Barry!”

”Same guy we saw last year,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.

Zito allowed Jon Jay’s leadoff single, then Carlos Beltran hit a hard grounder that Sandoval stopped to begin a double play – one of two turned by San Francisco.

Zito added a hit, too. He singled down the left-field line in his first at-bat leading off the third.

Zito hopes to build on his 15-8 record last season that was his best since the 2002 AL Cy Young Award winner joined San Francisco on a $126 million, seven-year contract before the 2007 season.

”Keep it going, Barry,” Romo said.

For Matheny, a former Giants catcher himself, San Francisco’s Game 7 clinching party in a downpour here is still plenty fresh.

”We understood the point once the trophy walked out onto the field,” he said. ”It wasn’t anything different when the flag goes up. We don’t need any more motivation than what we already got.”

The two clubs have captured the past three World Series championships – the Giants in 2010 and last year, the Cardinals in ’11.

Westbrook, still two wins shy of 100, matched his career high with six walks and struck out one in 6 2-3 innings. Allen Craig had two of the Cardinals’ hits.

Westbrook walked Gregor Blanco with one out in the fourth and allowed Brandon Crawford’s single before Zito produced another timely bunt. He sacrificed and reached on Yadier Molina’s fielding error to load the bases with one out. Westbrook walked Pagan to force in the run.

Zito had a perfectly executed bunt single to drive in a run during that Game 5 NLCS win.

”That’s an amazing run that he’s had, and really it’s incredible how he’s turned it around from some of the up-and-down years,” Bochy said. ”To get off to a start like this, I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

Brandon Belt returned to the Giants lineup at first base after missing the final two games at Los Angeles with a stomach bug. Bochy went with the exact same lineup as Game 5 of the NLCS against the Cardinals.

On a day when the Queen classic ”We Are the Champions” blared through a near-empty ballpark as pregame warmups began, San Francisco started off a six-game homestand.

It will be a weekend of fanfare for the franchise. On Saturday, the team will honor NL MVP and batting champion Buster Posey before the game with other former San Francisco MVPs, and Sunday will be the ring ceremony.

Sandoval and NLCS MVP Marco Scutaro threw out ceremonial first pitches.

”Tremendous ceremony,” Bochy said. ”Your emotions are just flying. To see the flag come in and how the fans are involved, it’s overwhelming. We all had chills, goose bumps. Some guys had tears.”

— Associated Press —

Chris Carpenter, one of the best clutch pitchers in the storied history of the St. Louis Cardinals, may have thrown his final pitch.

General manager John Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny announced Tuesday that Carpenter almost certainly won’t pitch in 2013 and that his star-crossed career is probably over after a recurrence of a nerve injury that cost him most of last season. Carpenter did not attend, and Mozeliak said the emotions for the 37-year-old are still too raw.

Retirement isn’t official yet. Carpenter plans to seek further medical evaluation. But Mozeliak seemed resigned to losing him.

“He’s leaving the door slightly open, but it’s unlikely,” Mozeliak said of Carpenter’s return.

Carpenter’s career numbers don’t reflect his value to the team. He is 144-94 with a 3.76 ERA in a career that began in Toronto in 1997. He spent six seasons with the Blue Jays and nine in St. Louis. He won the 2005 NL Cy Young Award, going 21-5 with a 2.83 ERA, and was second in 2009 after going 17-4 with a 2.24 ERA.

More telling are his postseason results, including a 10-4 record and 3.00 ERA in 18 starts. There were the eight innings of three-hit shutout baseball in a Game 3 World Series win over Detroit in 2006, a series the Cardinals won in five games; a 1-0 shutout to beat Roy Halladay in Philadelphia in the deciding game of the 2011 NL division series; and the gutty Game 7 World Series-clinching win over Texas on three days’ rest in 2011.

His career is all the more remarkable considering the amount of time he spent on the disabled list due to various shoulder, elbow and nerve injuries. He missed most of 2002, all of 2003, most of 2007 and 2008, and then last year’s season that was limited to three regular-season starts.

Carpenter phoned Mozeliak on Friday and told him that after trying to throw off a mound, the nerve injury was back, this time including numbness in his right arm, even bruising on his shoulder and hand.

“After speaking with him on the phone you certainly get a sense that he’s more concerned about life after baseball,” Mozeliak said.

The stunning news spread quickly. Third baseman David Freese tweeted: “Carp. 1 of the best teammates around. Heck of a competitor, impeccable leader. Passion for the game & to win, cant top. (hash)ace.”

Carpenter was a clubhouse force, a no-nonsense presence who set an example of grit and toughness. Consider 2012: He was written off as lost for the season after the nerve injury first emerged during spring training.

But in July, Carpenter had radical surgery that included removal of a rib, and it worked – he pitched three games down the stretch to help St. Louis earn the final NL wild card spot. He beat Washington in the division series but was 0-2 in the NL championship series against eventual World Series winner San Francisco, the velocity and command not up to his normal standard.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever witnessed a better competitor than Chris, and also leader,” said Matheny, a former catcher and teammate of Carpenter’s before his current role as manager.

Mozeliak agreed.

“When he was healthy he was one of the best,” Mozeliak said. “He was blessed with talent but he also worked extremely hard. When I think back over the last 10 to 15 years here in St. Louis he was one of those guys who just helped create the model of success. He left nothing to chance.”

Carpenter’s contract calls for a $12.5 million salary this year, of which $2 million is deferred without interest and is to be paid in $200,000 installments each July 1 from 2017-26.

As recently as the Cardinals’ annual fan gathering in mid-January, Carpenter was saying he was healthy and eager to pitch in 2013. Mozeliak said Carpenter tried throwing from a mound perhaps three times before calling him, emotionally saying he didn’t think he could pitch.

“He felt to some degree he was letting us down,” Mozeliak said. “I assured him nothing was further from the truth.”

Still, Matheny called the news “a kick in the gut” and the Cardinals have been through this before, too. Adam Wainwright had Tommy John surgery after hurting his elbow in 2011 and missed the entire season.

“There are a lot of young arms ready to contribute and now they’re going to get that opportunity,” Mozeliak said.

He declined to speculate on whether the team would consider re-signing Kyle Lohse, who was 16-3 with a 2.86 in 211 innings for St. Louis last season but remains unsigned as a free agent.

The Cardinals also have uncertainty about left-hander Jaime Garcia, who was 7-7 with a 3.92 ERA last season but was limited to just 20 starts due to shoulder fatigue. He was lost for the rest of the postseason after injuring his left shoulder in Game 2 against the Nationals.

Wainwright, Jake Westbrook and Lance Lynn are expected to be in the rotation. Younger pitchers Joe Kelly, Trevor Rosenthal and Shelby Miller will compete for a spot.

“As we head into spring now there’s certainly a void there, but there’s also an opportunity,” Matheny said. “We have to have some other guys step up.”

— Associated Press —

In a postseason full of twists and turns, the San Francisco Giants are headed back to the World Series after a big comeback against the defending champs.

Hunter Pence got the Giants going with a weird double, Matt Cain pitched his second clincher of October and San Francisco closed out Game 7 of the NL championship series in a driving rainstorm, routing the St. Louis Cardinals 9-0 Monday night.

San Francisco won its record-tying sixth elimination game of the postseason, completing a lopsided rally from a 3-1 deficit.

”These guys never quit,” Manager Bruce Bochy said. ”They just kept believing and they got it done.”

The Giants, who won it all in 2010, will host Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 on Wednesday night.

Verlander is set to pitch Wednesday’s opener. Bochy insisted before Monday’s game he had not planned any further in advance.

Series MVP Marco Scutaro produced his sixth multihit game of the series and matched an LCS record with 14 hits and Pablo Sandoval drove in a run for his fifth straight game.

After falling behind 3-1 in the series at Busch Stadium, the Giants outscored the wild-card Cardinals 20-1 over the final three games behind stellar starting pitching from Barry Zito, Ryan Vogelsong and Cain.

They also benefited from some strange bounces.

On Pence’s double that highlighted a five-run third, his bat broke at the label on impact, then the broken barrel hit the ball twice more. That put a rolling, slicing spin on the ball and caused it to change directions – leaving shortstop Pete Kozma little chance to make the play. Kozma broke to his right, figuring that’s where the ball would go, but it instead curved to left-center.

Injured closer Brian Wilson, with that out-of-control bushy black beard, danced in the dugout and fans in the sellout crowd of 43,056 kept twirling their orange rally towels even through rain in the late innings – a downright downpour when Sergio Romo retired Matt Holliday on a popup to Scutaro to end it.

”This rain never felt so good,” Scutaro said.

Romo embraced catcher Buster Posey as fireworks went off over McCovey Cove beyond right field.

The NL West champion Giants won their first postseason clincher at home since the 2002 NLCS, also against the Cardinals.

These 2012 Giants have a couple of pretty talented castoffs of their own not so different from that winning combination of 2010 ”castoffs and misfits” as Bochy referred to his bunch – with Scutaro right there at the top of the list this time around.

Acquired July 27 from the division rival Colorado Rockies, Scutaro hit .500 (14 for 28) with four RBIs in the NLCS. The 36-year-old journeyman infielder, playing in his second postseason and first since 2006 with Oakland, became the first player in major league history with six multihit games in an LCS.

Now, he’s headed to his first World Series.

The Giants have All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera to thank for helping his teammates secure home-field advantage in the postseason – while Cain was the winning pitcher the National League’s 8-0 victory in July. Cabrera was suspended 50 games Aug. 15 for a positive testosterone test, then wasn’t added to the roster by the Giants after his suspension ended.

After rain fell on the Cardinals during batting practice, the skies turned blue and the weather cooperated. Anxious players on both sides hung over the dugout rails as the game began.

Cain joined St. Louis’ Chris Carpenter as the only pitchers with victories in two winner-take-all games in the same postseason. Carpenter, who lost Games 2 and 6 in this series, did it last year.

Cain also pitched the Giants’ Game 5 division series clincher at Cincinnati, when San Francisco became the first team in major league history to come back from an 0-2 deficit in a five-game series by winning three consecutive road games.

”I think to do it, the guys actually have to believe it can happen,” Posey said.

He delivered on an even bigger stage Monday as San Francisco saved its season once again. The Giants won their 20th NL pennant and reached their 19th World Series.

Cain walked off the mound to a standing ovation when Jeremy Affeldt entered with two outs in the sixth. Affeldt then got Daniel Descalso to pop out with two runners on.

Yadier Molina had four hits but got little help from the rest of the Cardinals, who went 1 for 21 with runners in scoring position over their final three games.

Cain added an RBI single to his cause and got some sparkling defense behind him.

The play of the game went to shortstop Brandon Crawford, who made a leaping catch of Kyle Lohse’s liner to end the second inning with runners on second and third that would have been a run-scoring hit.

In the third, Scutaro, the second baseman, made a tough stop on a short hop by Carlos Beltran, and left fielder Gregor Blanco ran down a hard-hit ball by Allen Craig in left-center to end the inning.

Cain’s second-inning single made San Francisco the first team in major league postseason history to have a starting pitcher drive in a run in three straight games.

Brandon Belt hit a solo homer in the eighth for his first clout of the postseason.

It took production from everybody, even the pitchers, for these scrappy Giants to rally back from the brink one more time.

Cain certainly did his part to keep the staff rolling.

The 16-game winner, who didn’t surrender an earned run during his team’s title run two years ago, reached 46 pitches through two innings but settled in nicely the rest of the way to avenge a loss to Lohse in Game 3.

Cain even got to repay Holliday for his hard slide into Scutaro at second base in Game 2 here a week earlier. Cain plunked Holliday in the upper left arm leading off the sixth, drawing cheers from the crowd.

The right-hander escaped trouble in the second with runners on second and third when Crawford made his catch.

Holliday returned to the lineup after missing Game 6 a night earlier with tightness in his lower back. He received loud boos when he stepped in to hit in the first from a fan base still angry about his slide that injured Scutaro’s hip.

Beltran is still left 0-fer the World Series, winless in three Game 7s during his 15-year career. And to think just last fall he was on the other side with the Giants as they missed the playoffs a year after winning the club’s first World Series since moving West in 1958.

The Cardinals went an NL-best 12-4 from Sept. 16 to the end of the season to earn the NL’s second wild card on the second-to-last day of the season, then won 6-3 in a winner-take-all playoff at Atlanta to reach the division series. The Cardinals then rallied from a 6-0 deficit with a four-run ninth inning to stun the Washington Nationals 9-7 in Game 5.

Scutaro joined Hideki Matsui (2004 Yankees), Albert Pujols (2004 Cardinals) and Kevin Youkilis (2007 Red Sox) with 14 hits in a league championship series.

Sandoval’s run-scoring groundout in the first that put his team ahead gave him at least one RBI in five straight postseason games, matching home run king Barry Bonds’ franchise record set in 2002.

— Associated Press —

Ryan Vogelsong and these San Francisco Giants sure have become adept at saving their season.

Now, they need to do it once more against the comeback champs.

Vogelsong struck out a career-best nine in another postseason gem and on his biggest stage yet, and San Francisco staved off elimination for the second straight game, pushing St. Louis to a winner-take-all Game 7 in the NL championship series with a 6-1 victory Sunday night.

”There are two teams in the same boat right now. You’ll see two teams go out and give it everything they’ve got,” Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt said. ”This is what we play all year for and we’ll put it all on the line. This is Game 7. There’s only one better Game 7. They are no more what-if scenarios.”

Turns out the defending champion Cardinals aren’t the only team tough to put away in October.

Marco Scutaro delivered a two-run double and Buster Posey drove in his first run of the series with a groundout in the first inning as San Francisco struck early to support Vogelsong.

San Francisco’s Matt Cain and St. Louis’ Kyle Lohse are set to pitch in a rematch of Game 3, won by the Cardinals. There’s a forecast of rain in the Bay Area during the day.

”It’s time to get it done,” Lohse said.

These wild-card Cardinals sure seem to like the all-or-nothing route in October, while San Francisco thrives playing from behind.

”Clutch performances are just guys playing normally in big spots. You can’t be petrified by the situation, and neither of these teams have been,” St. Louis’ Lance Berkman said. ”One of the things that makes Game 7’s so interesting is that I don’t think either of these teams is going to choke it away.”

Five games with their year on the line, five wins for these gutsy Giants this postseason. Now, it comes down to one game for the past two World Series champions to return, with the Detroit Tigers waiting.

Pitching to chants of ”Vogey! Vogey!” from the sellout crowd of 43,070 at AT&T Park, the right-hander didn’t allow a hit until Daniel Descalso’s broken-bat single to center with two outs in the fifth. Vogelsong struck out the side in the first and had already fanned five through two innings.

”This place is going to be loud, I can tell you that,” Vogelsong said of Monday night.

Scutaro had no chance for a collision with Matt Holliday this time. In their first game back at AT&T Park since Holliday took out the second baseman with a hard slide in Game 2, Holliday was scratched about an hour before first pitch because of tightness in his lower back, and Allen Craig replaced him in left field.

It hardly mattered the way Vogelsong pitched.

The Cardinals managed their only run on Craig’s two-out single in the sixth. St. Louis had gone 15 innings without scoring after left-hander Barry Zito won 5-0 on Friday in Game 5.

”I just tried to do really the same thing he did, come out and set the tone early for us,” Vogelsong said.

Vogelsong had his second stellar seven-inning outing against the Cardinals in a week, allowing four hits and one run. He walked one in a 102-pitch performance and lowered his postseason ERA – all this year – to 1.42.

The 35-year-old Vogelsong toiled through the minors, Japan and even winter ball to finally pitch under the October spotlight for a chance at the World Series. His latest impressive outing put the Giants one win away.

”I just believe that it’s my time,” Vogelsong said.

After taking a 3-1 lead back home at Busch Stadium, Mike Matheny’s Cardinals will have to find some offense in a hurry if they want to get back to the World Series.

”We’ve got to make some adjustments but our team’s done that all season,” Matheny said. ”One thing I know is these guys take these to heart.”

These Cards might just prefer close calls. Just like last year.

They won the NL’s second wild card on the second-to-last day of the regular season, then won at Atlanta to reach the division series. The Cardinals rallied from a 6-0 deficit with a four-run ninth inning to stun the Washington Nationals 9-7 in Game 5 of the division series.

The Giants got to St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter again. The Cardinals winningest postseason pitcher with 10 victories looked out of sync for the second straight start – and he left with a nearly identical line as in his 7-1 Game 2 loss here last Monday, down to the hits, earned runs, unearned runs and innings.

Carpenter was done in by one big inning this time, too. He allowed six hits and five runs, two earned, in four innings.

”The bottom line is I’m not giving my team a chance to win,” Carpenter said. ”You go out with a 5-0 lead after two innings, it’s not giving your team a chance.”

Vogelsong reached on shortstop Pete Kozma’s fielding error in the second, scoring Brandon Belt after he led off the inning with a triple. Scutaro came up two batters later and doubled home two more runs.

The 10 unearned runs allowed by the Cardinals are the most in an NLCS, according to STATS LLC – topping the nine given up by the Braves in 2001 and Dodgers in 1985.

San Francisco never faced an elimination game in 2010 on the way to winning the World Series, but has had to go the distance in each of its first two postseason series this year. They became the first team in major league history to come back from a 2-0 deficit to win a best-of-five series by winning three straight on the road as they did at Cincinnati.

”We’re enjoying this moment. We know how to handle this situation,” San Francisco third baseman Pablo Sandoval said.

They have Vogelsong along for this year’s run.

”He was on top of his game again,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. ”He’s probably been as consistent as any starter this year.”

The Giants put pressure on Carpenter right away.

Scutaro drew a one-out walk and Sandoval doubled off the wall in center on a ball that eluded Jon Jay. Posey followed with a groundout to third to score Scutaro for a 1-0 lead.

Scutaro is batting .458 (11 for 24) during the NLCS.

”I don’t really know, man,” Scutaro said when asked to explain it. ”Just excited to come to the field every day. … Being in this opportunity, just being in the playoffs, is amazing.”

While the Giants have won five straight games facing elimination this postseason, the Cardinals have won their last six dating to last year. This is the first time the NLCS has gone seven games since 2006, when St. Louis beat the New York Mets 3-1 at Shea Stadium. Carlos Beltran, now with the Cardinals, struck out looking when Adam Wainwright froze him on a curveball.

”This night, this moment belongs to every player in here and every fan in the stands,” San Francisco right fielder Hunter Pence said. ”There’s still another story to be told, and we’ll just have to wait and see if we’re going to enjoy it.”

— Associated Press —

The big curveball was back, and Barry Zito mixed in some well-placed fastballs, too.

It was just like the good old days.

Zito was at his best Friday night, pitching San Francisco back into the NL championship series with a 5-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that narrowed its deficit to 3-2.

”All things considered, you know, there’s definitely some playoff memories there, but they were in a different uniform,” the soft-tossing lefty said after his first playoff win in six years sent the series back to San Francisco.

”This was probably the biggest one for me.”

Game 6 will begin Sunday in the twilight at AT&T Park, with Ryan Vogelsong pitching against the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter.

”I’m sure Carpenter is going to be on top of his game, as always,” Vogelsong said. ”I’m going to have to be sharp because with him on the mound one run can lose a game for you.”

Zito looked like the same guy who won 23 games and the 2002 AL Cy Young Award with the Athletics. He retired 11 batters in a row in one stretch while scattering six hits with six strikeouts in 7 2-3 innings.

Giants catcher Buster Posey twice tapped Zito on the chest when he was pulled in the eighth. It was Zito’s fifth postseason win but first since 2006, shortly before he left the A’s and signed a $126 million, seven-year contract with San Francisco.

”This is definitely it for me,” Zito said. ”Coming here, especially doing it in a Giants uniform. A lot of people were saying stuff about A’s days. And for me, the most important thing is doing everything for San Francisco right now.”

Zito was left off the postseason roster when the Giants won the 2010 World Series because he had pitched so poorly.

Zito’s 15-8 record this year was his first winning season since joining the Giants. He started Game 4 of the division series against the Reds and lasted only 2 2-3 innings.

”I couldn’t be happier for him,” manager Bruce Bochy said. ”He had it all going. He put on quite a show.”

The defending champion Cardinals might have thrown away a chance to clinch a second straight World Series trip. Pitcher Lance Lynn’s toss on a possible forceout deflected off the second-base bag, paving the way for the Giants’ four-run fourth.

Lynn was trying to turn the front end of a double play.

”I turned to throw it and I just threw it in the ground,” he said. ”Just a bad play. You make a good throw there and we are out of the inning. It was one of those times where I just short-armed it a little bit.”

Pablo Sandoval homered for the second straight night and Zito made an extremely rare offensive contribution with a perfectly executed bunt for an RBI single.

The Giants also made several nice plays behind Zito, including a juggling catch in right by Hunter Pence and a spectacular sliding stop by second baseman Marco Scutaro to rob pinch-hitter Shane Robinson on consecutive at-bats.

Once again this postseason, the Giants benefited from a big error.

Needing three straight wins at Cincinnati to avoid elimination in the division series, San Francisco began its comeback on a bobble by third baseman Scott Rolen in the 10th inning that gave the Giants the go-ahead run in Game 3.

The Giants improved to 4-2 on the road this postseason and have won Zito’s last 13 starts, with the last setback on Aug. 2. They’re averaging more than six runs a game during the streak, although the left-hander didn’t need much help in this one.

Lynn, an 18-game winner his first year in the rotation, failed to make it out of the fourth for the second time in the series.

”I didn’t give up a hit until the fourth, I had good stuff, it was just another bad inning,” Lynn said. ”This time of year, they are going to blow up on you, if you give them that extra out. And I gave them that extra out.”

The Cardinals are seeking consecutive pennants for the first time since 1967-68, and trying to advance for the second year in a row as a wild-card entry. One more win would set up a rematch of the 2006 World Series against the Tigers, which the Cardinals took in five games.

Before the game, Jon Jay and David Freese spent time on the podium discussing why the Cardinals have been so successful, but manager Mike Matheny didn’t think his players relaxed.

”There’s distractions from you guys every day,” Matheny told reporters after the game. ”That’s part of the gig. Just today we had a guy come out and pitch us tough, and we didn’t get the execution when we needed it. That’s what it all comes down to.”

Lynn struck out five of his first 10 batters, sailing through the first three innings with no balls hit out of the infield. His undoing was a wild throw off the second-base bag attempting to get a forceout on a comebacker that paved the way for San Francisco’s four-run fourth.

The Giants had runners on first and second with one out when Lynn gloved a tapper by Pence, wheeled and threw while shortstop Pete Kozma hustled to second. But Lynn threw a low dart off the bag with the ball bounding into shallow right field and Marco Scutaro scoring without a play from second.

Eighth-place hitter Brandon Crawford singled up the middle with the bases loaded on a full-count pitch with two outs, as Lynn just missed with a kick save for two more runs. Zito, who has just 30 career hits in 310 at-bats in the regular season with nine RBIs, laid down a perfect bunt for a fourth run.

Lynn has allowed four runs in both of his NLCS starts, although all four were unearned in Game 5. Matheny was noncommittal about the Cardinals’ pitching plans if they made it to the World Series.

One possible rotation replacement is Jake Westbrook, coming off a pulled oblique muscle, who pronounced himself ready after throwing a simulated game earlier in the week.

”Moving forward, he’s been a very, very good pitcher for us this season,” Matheny said of Lynn. ”And we don’t look any further past right now, for right now.”

Zito’s only trouble came in the second when Yadier Molina and David Freese, both swinging on the first pitch, opened the inning with a single and double. Lynn, a career .056 hitter including the postseason, hit into a bases-loaded double play to end the threat.

Lynn was 3 for 50 with 36 strikeouts during the regular season, going hitless his last 42 at-bats.

— Associated Press —

One more win and another bunch of wild-card Cardinals get their chance to repeat.

Adam Wainwright threw seven innings of four-hit ball and St. Louis roughed up Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants in an 8-3 rout Thursday night that gave the Cardinals a 3-1 lead in the NL championship series.

The defending World Series champions can wrap up their second straight pennant as a wild card with a victory at home Friday night in Game 5. Lance Lynn faces Giants lefty Barry Zito, and a Cardinals win would set up a 2006 World Series rematch with Detroit.

”We’ve got to close them out tomorrow,” Wainwright said.

Matt Holliday, Jon Jay and Yadier Molina had two RBIs apiece to lead a 12-hit outburst by a team that batted just .198 through the first three games against San Francisco.

”They had their backs against the wall against the Reds and won three in a row, so we’ve still got our work cut out for us and this series is by no means over,” Holliday said.

Lincecum was a bust in his first postseason start since the 2010 World Series clincher over Texas, giving up four runs in 4 2-3 innings.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner with the quirky delivery earned a shot based on nearly spotless relief work earlier in the postseason but reverted to regular-season form, when he was 10-15 with a 5.18 ERA, worst among qualifying starters in the National League.

Wainwright was a glorified cheerleader while rehabbing from reconstructive elbow surgery during the Cardinals’ improbable title drive last fall after earning the wild card on the final day of the season and then upsetting the favored Phillies, Brewers and Rangers to give manager Tony La Russa a chance to retire on top.

Under rookie manager Mike Matheny, the 88-win Cardinals were the final team to qualify this year, too. Once again, they’ve stepped up their game.

Wainwright bounced back from a poor outing in Game 5 of the NL division series against Washington, striking out five and walking none for his first postseason victory as a starter.

”It was a big motivator,” he said. ”I know that I’m good enough to pitch in the postseason, to carry this team deep into the game, give them a quality game, a quality outing. Last time I didn’t do it but I knew tonight if I just believed in myself and went out there and executed pitches I would be in good shape.”

The lone damage against Wainwright came on Hunter Pence’s first homer and RBI of the postseason, a second-inning clout estimated at 451 feet that soared over the visitor’s bullpen into the left-center bleachers to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 2-1.

Now, the 14-game winner is on the verge of his first World Series as an active player since striking out Brandon Inge as the stand-in closer for injured Jason Isringhausen in the 2006 clincher over the Tigers.

”This whole experience is so special as it is,” Wainwright said. ”But to get back to that World Series is always the way to go.”

Holliday wasn’t surprised by Wainwright’s strong performance.

”You expect Adam to pitch well and pitch like an ace, and he did,” Holliday said. ”His curveball was really good. He located his fastball. No surprise. We all expect Adam to pitch the way he pitched tonight, but sometimes things like the Washington game happen. But he’s tough as nails. We knew he’d pitch well.”

Just 12 pitches in, the Cardinals had two hits and the lead, and Lincecum got a visit from pitching coach Dave Righetti. Jay opened the first with a single, Matt Carpenter walked on four pitches and Holliday singled up the middle for the lead. Allen Craig tacked on a sacrifice fly.

”I’ve just been working on my swing and I felt more comfortable tonight,” Holliday said. ”I was able to get some pitches to hit and hit them hard and good results, that always helps the confidence.”

Lincecum escaped trouble in the second after issuing two more walks, one of them on five pitches to Wainwright. The Cardinals missed a chance to add on after Pete Kozma reached on third baseman Pablo Sandoval’s fielding error to open the inning when he was thrown out trying to steal.

Lincecum had retired eight in a row before running into trouble in the fifth.

Carpenter doubled off the top of the wall in right-center with one out. He held up until Holliday’s single fell in front of fast-charging center fielder Angel Pagan, but third base coach Jose Oquendo aggressively waved Carpenter home.

The relay from shortstop Brandon Crawford was in time, but it short-hopped catcher Hector Sanchez and Carpenter scored on a headfirst slide to make it 3-1. Molina’s two-out RBI single made it 4-1 and was the knockout blow for Lincecum.

”He gave us all he had out there,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. ”That was his last inning and he was close to getting out of that inning. He made a great effort on that ball and good throw. We had him at home plate and it’s still 2-1. That’s a big play in the game.”

Pence, who called himself ”the goat” of Game 3 after stranding seven runners, hit the second-longest home run by an opposing player at 7-year-old Busch Stadium with a 451-foot drive that sailed over the visitor’s bullpen into the bleachers in left-center.

Holliday’s RBI single was the first by a Cardinals starter since Carlos Beltran’s two-run homer in the fourth inning of Game 1. Holliday entered 2 for 12 in the NLCS with no RBIs.

Sandoval hit a two-run homer in the ninth, but the NL West champs are on the brink of elimination.

”We have all the confidence in Barry,” Bochy said. ”We do need to get the bats going. They’ve been shutting us down.”

— Associated Press —

Matt Carpenter always tries to stay ready, keeping an assortment of gloves nearby. That’s his job.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ utilityman took on a new role in Game 3 of the NL championship series: game-changer.

Carpenter hit a two-run homer after subbing for Carlos Beltran and the Cardinals chased Matt Cain before a 3 1/2-hour rain delay in the seventh inning of a 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night for a 2-1 series lead.

”It was definitely a surprise,” Carpenter said. ”I didn’t even realize Carlos had hurt himself, there was really no thought process.

”I was in the game before I had time to think about it,” he said.

Beltran strained his left knee running out a double-play ball in the first inning and the Cardinals said he was day to day. He’s had issues off and on with the knee throughout the season, but played in 151 games and had 619 at-bats, his most since 2008.

Kyle Lohse worked around a season-worst five walks in 5 2-3 innings. Mitchell Boggs struck out Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt with two on to end the seventh. Jason Motte earned the first two-inning save of his career to reward what remained of a sellout crowd of 45,850 that stuck around – perhaps a third – for a game that lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes, about a half-hour shorter than the delay.

”They said if we didn’t score I was going to go out there. I was in the clubhouse running around, I’ve never really had to sit around like that,” Motte said. ”It was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been.”

Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro had two hits and a clean game in the field, two days after Matt Holliday rammed him breaking up a double play. Manager Bruce Bochy had said there would be no retaliation, and Game 3 was collision-free.

”I’m sure he was gutting it out,” Bochy said of Scutaro. ”He was determined to play and made a pretty good recovery.”

Bochy said Scutaro made the right play going to first on a run-scoring groundout by Shane Robinson that made it 3-1 in the seventh.

”Well, I don’t think he had a play at home. It would have been close,” Bochy said. ”You can’t have a better or smarter second baseman than Marco.”

The big winners in a delay that featured about a half-hour without rain while officials awaited a second, smaller front: Beer vendors, by a single out. Alcohol sales are cut off after the seventh inning in all stadiums.

Cain lost for the second time this postseason, giving up three runs on five hits in 6 1-3 innings. The Giants, who entered the game batting just .217 in the postseason, were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

Pence, the Giants’ fifth-place hitter, also grounded into a double play with runners on first and third in the third and grounded into a force play with a man on to end the fifth.

”I’m the goat tonight,” Pence said. ”I just didn’t the job done.”

The Cardinals snapped the Giants’ five-game road winning streak in the postseason, three of them this year. Game 4 is in St. Louis on Thursday night, with Adam Wainwright pitching for the Cardinals. Tim Lincecum will start for the Giants.

”He’s a guy we want out there. He’s been throwing the ball well,” Bochy said. ”We’ve got to bounce back.”

Bochy said lefty Barry Zito will pitch Game 5 against Lance Lynn, leaving lefty Madison Bumgarner out of the mix for now.

”I think we feel that it’s time to give Madison a little break,” Bochy said.

Carpenter followed Jon Jay’s two-out single with a homer off Cain in his first at-bat of the NLCS.

Beltran is batting .400 in the postseason with three homers and six RBIs, but Carpenter had big numbers against Cain. He was 4 for 4 for his career against Cain, four singles.

”Really, there’s no explanation,” Carpenter said. ”He’s one of the best in the game, obviously, I think we all know that.”

Cain was ahead 0-2 in the count and Carpenter worked it back to 2-2 before jumping on a hanging slider.

”I try to grind out those at-bats and fight,” Carpenter said. ”I was in my two-strike mode and I got the pitch. You don’t expect things like that to happen.”

This one was a much bigger deal, a drive that soared over the Cardinals bullpen in right field and was estimated at 421 feet.

”It was bad pitch. I was trying to go slider in and I didn’t get it in there like I should have,” Cain said. ”I made a bad pitch and it cost us.”

Cain was aware Carpenter had hit him well.

”It might affect what you’re trying to do because you don’t know his weaknesses,” Cain said. ”But you’ve still got to make good pitches and that’s what I failed to do.”

Carpenter entered the game 1 for 5 in the postseason, all five pinch-hit appearances. He had an RBI single in the wild-card playoff against Atlanta. He got 14 of his 46 RBIs in April as the primary sub at first base for injured Lance Berkman.

On Tuesday, Carpenter was among a group of seldom-used hitters trying to stay sharp by facing Jake Westbrook in a simulated game. The rest of the team had the day off.

Umpires called for the tarpaulin right after the Cardinals made it 3-1 on a run-scoring single by Shane Robinson and Cain was lifted.

It was the third game delayed by rain this postseason and a fourth, Game 4 of the Yankees-Tigers ALCS, was postponed later Wednesday night. Two games between the Yankees and Orioles in Baltimore began late because of inclement weather.

The rain intensified less than 10 minutes after the field was covered, chasing most fans who had remained in their seats to that point. Spotters for the National Weather Service reported 60 mph winds in nearby St. Charles County.

A highlight of the delay was a Pac-Man style chase. Ushers pursued and finally apprehended a fan who jumped out of the stands to get a baseball near the warning track in left field, and then jutted in and out of aisles to elude several ushers who had been closing in.

The storm had been widely anticipated. Some forecasts called for a 70 percent chance of rain. Both managers fielded questions Tuesday and Wednesday about whether the probability of precipitation would affect their selection of the starting pitcher.

Both said they couldn’t worry about the weather, and the starters combined for 208 pitches.

”I’ve been caught before where you try to predict what’s going to happen with the rain and started,” Bochy said. ”Just a couple years ago I started a pitcher thinking the same thing and it didn’t rain for four or five innings. Then I put my starter in and then it started raining, and so it came back to bite me.”

Lohse is 2-1 with a 1.96 ERA this postseason despite uncustomary control woes. He was among the majors’ best control pitchers this season, averaging 1.62 walks per nine innings.

The Giants entered 70-22 when scoring first, including the postseason, and took the lead in the third on Pablo Sandoval’s run-scoring groundout after leadoff hits by Angel Pagan and Scutaro, whose legs looked just fine on an opposite-field double flared just over first baseman Allen Craig’s glove.

Beltran leads all players with eight extra-base hits in the 2012 playoffs and is a career .375 hitter in the postseason, highest ever among players with a minimum of 100 at-bats.

— Associated Press —

Marco Scutaro answered Matt Holliday’s hard takeout with a big hit of his own to help the San Francisco Giants end their home slide.

Scutaro hit a two-run single in San Francisco’s four-run fourth inning before leaving with a hip injury and the Giants got their first home win this postseason, 7-1 over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night that tied the NL Championship Series at one game apiece.

More Cardinals-Giants Coverage

Marco Scutaro and Ryan Vogelsong made the NLCS a series with their Game 2 performances against the Cardinals, writes David Schoenfield. Blog

“It shows you how tough he is,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “It’s a shame somebody got hurt. It was more of a roll block. We’re hoping he comes out of this OK. He got hit pretty good.”

Scutaro left after the fifth because of his damaged left hip. X-rays were negative, and he’ll likely get an MRI on Tuesday. There was no word on his future status.

“You’re trying to get to the second baseman and obviously try to knock him down so he can’t turn a double play,” Holliday said. “As long as you’re in the baseline, it’s within the rules.”

The series now shifts to St. Louis for three games, starting with Game 3 on Wednesday when San Francisco ace Matt Cain takes on Kyle Lohse of the Cardinals.

Things got off to a testy start when Holliday barreled into Scutaro at second base to break up a potential double play in the first inning. The play riled up a crowd that had seen three straight losses by the Giants so far this postseason.

There was plenty to cheer all night for the Giants. Ryan Vogelsong pitched seven strong innings, Angel Pagan hit a leadoff homer to give San Francisco its first home lead this postseason, and Scutaro broke the game open with his single off Chris Carpenter.

Making Scutaro’s hit even sweeter for the Giants was the fact that Holliday misplayed the ball in left field, allowing a third run to score on the error.

The Giants also benefited from a missed call by an umpire in the eighth inning after St. Louis center fielder Jon Jay made a spectacular, diving catch to rob Brandon Crawford of a hit.

Jay threw toward first and the Cardinals should have gotten a double play, but first base umpire Bill Miller did not see Allen Craig tag Gregor Blanco’s jersey as he raced back to first on the play.

St. Louis manager Mike Matheny argued the call and the umpires huddled to discuss it, but they kept the safe call even though replays showed Craig made the tag. The Giants capitalized when Ryan Theriot hit a two-run single to make it 7-1.

Back at Busch Stadium, Holliday will be cheered after being the target of boos all night following his aggressive play on the basepaths.

With runners on first and second and one out, Craig hit a bouncer to Crawford, and the shortstop quickly flipped to Scutaro for the forceout.

Holliday, a former high school football star in Oklahoma, came tumbling in and slid late into Scutaro, crushing his left leg to prevent up the double play. Scutaro lay on the ground twisting in pain while trainer Dave Groeschner and Bochy ran out of the dugout to attend to the second baseman.

“As I watched it live it looked like it was a hard slide,” Matheny said. “It didn’t go out of the baseline to get him. Once again, I haven’t looked at it again, but we teach our guys to go hard. Play the game clean, play it hard, not try and hurt anybody.”

“I hated to see that it ended up that way. That’s not how we play the game. But we do go hard, but within the rules,” he said.

Vogelsong got out of the jam by retiring Yadier Molina on a groundout and Scutaro stayed in the game with a limp until being replaced in the sixth by Theriot.

By then, he had done his damage with the bat in the big fourth inning.

The rally started innocently enough with a bloop, opposite field double by Brandon Belt and a chopper over third baseman David Freese by Blanco. Crawford then hit a bouncer between the mound and first base that Carpenter fielded and threw away toward first base. It appeared Crawford may have impeded Carpenter by running inside the baseline but the Cardinals did not argue the play.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Scutaro lined his single to left-center that Holliday misplayed to the delight of Giants fans, putting Carpenter and the Cardinals into a 5-1 hole.

Vogelsong made the lead hold up by becoming the first Giants starter to make it through six innings this postseason. He allowed four hits and one run for his first career postseason win.

“It was unbelievable. It was fun to watch,” Pagan said. “It was very tough tonight. All his pitches were right in the zone, you know, hitting the corners and getting the hitters off balance. That was the key for him tonight.”

These teams have a history of contentious meetings in the NLCS from Jeffrey Leonard’s one-flap down home run trot in 1987 that riled up the Cardinals to a benches-clearing dustup 10 years ago when St. Louis reliever Mike Crudale buzzed Kenny Lofton after he showboated on a home run.

San Francisco answered with the bats this time as Pagan led off the bottom of the first with a homer — matching his feat from Game 4 of the division series against Cincinnati. The Giants had been outscored 20-6 and never led in two home losses to the Reds and the Game 1 defeat to the Cardinals.

The Cardinals tied it in the second inning when Pete Kozma drew a two-out walk and scored on Carpenter’s RBI double, his third hit already this postseason.

But Carpenter, making his fifth appearance in 2012 after complicated surgery to remove a rib and two neck muscles, wasn’t nearly as sharp on the mound or in the field. He allowed five runs — two earned — and six hits in four innings, failing to add to his 10 career postseason wins.

“He’s been real sharp lately,” Matheny said. “Today they just got a few things going. We couldn’t get it stopped until there were too many runs on the board. We have faith in him in these situations and know he’ll come out next opportunity and make good pitches for us.”

— Associated Press —

Carlos Beltran and David Freese each hit two-run homers and the St. Louis Cardinals held on to beat the San Francisco Giants 6-4 Sunday night in Game 1 of the NL championship series.

The wild-card Cardinals took an early 6-0 lead and made it stand up. Two days earlier, St. Louis overcame a 6-0 deficit to beat Washington in the deciding Game 5 of the division series.

After starter Lance Lynn struggled, the St. Louis bullpen delivered with 5 1-3 scoreless innings.

The Giants dropped to 0-3 at home so far during this postseason, outscored 20-6 at AT&T Park.

Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Monday night. Chris Carpenter pitches for the Cardinals against Ryan Vogelsong.

— Associated Press —

Carlos Beltran and the never-give-up St. Louis Cardinals began their latest comeback celebration quietly, plucking cans of beer from a blue bin that was hurriedly wheeled from the home to the visiting clubhouse in the middle of the ninth inning.

”How did that happen?!” Beltran asked, speaking to no one in particular.

Then in walked Pete Kozma, and the party really started. Teammates sprayed champagne bottles directly at the rookie shortstop who drove in the go-ahead runs against the Washington Nationals in Game 5 of their NL division series. Doesn’t matter how bad things look for these Cardinals. Trailing by a bunch, down to their last strike, they simply stay calm and do what it takes to win.

Erasing an early six-run hole slowly but surely, the defending World Series champs got a tying two-out, two-run single from Daniel Descalso and a go-ahead two-run single from Kozma in the top of the ninth inning, coming all the way back to beat the Nationals 9-7 Friday night and reach the NL championship series.

”We never quit,” catcher Yadier Molina said. ”That’s our rule.”

Behind 3-0 before recording an out, behind 6-0 in the third inning, behind 7-5 with two outs and one on in the ninth, the Cardinals somehow, some way constructed the largest comeback ever in a winner-take-all postseason game, according to STATS LLC. No other club in this sort of ultimate pressure situation had come back from more than four down.

”We knew we had a lot of game left after they scored six. Nobody went up there trying to hit a six-run homer,” said Descalso, whose solo shot in the eighth made it 6-5. ”We needed to scratch and claw and get ourselves back in the game.”

They did, barely: Descalso, who only hit .227 in the regular season, came up with a game-saving single that ticked off the glove of diving shortstop Ian Desmond to make it 7-all.

Then it was Kozma’s turn. He hit .236 in nearly 2,500 at-bats over six seasons in the minors – the unheralded guy was mistakenly called ”Cosmos” by Nationals manager Davey Johnson before Game 4 – and was in the Cardinals’ lineup only because of an injury to Rafael Furcal. But he sent another pitch from Nationals closer Drew Storen into right field.

”I was looking for a good fastball to hit. He gave it to me,” Kozma said. ”You can’t write this stuff up. It just happens.”

First-year manager Mike Matheny and the wild-card Cardinals, the last team to clinch a playoff spot this year, will open the NLCS at San Francisco on Sunday. Lance Lynn, who was used in relief against Washington, will go back to the rotation and start Game 1.

The Nationals, meanwhile, led the majors with 98 wins in 2012 but their run ended without All-Star ace Stephen Strasburg. The team said he’d thrown enough this year and didn’t put him on the playoff roster.

”I stand by my decision, and we’ll take the criticism as it comes,” general manager Mike Rizzo said, ”but we have to do what’s best for the Washington Nationals, and we think we did.”

Even without him, Washington had its chances to knock off the Cardinals. Oh, were there chances. For a total of five pitches, Storen was one strike away from ending the game. But on all five, the batters – Yadier Molina and David Freese – took a ball. Both walked, setting the stage for Descalso and Kozma.

”We had it right there, and the most disappointing thing I’ll say is that I just let these guys down,” Storen said. ”There’s a bad taste in my mouth and that’s going to stay there for a couple of months. It’s probably never going to leave.”

Cardinals closer Jason Motte, who got the win with two innings of one-run relief, said: ”Maybe we’re just stubborn. These guys, they don’t give away at-bats, that’s the thing.”

When Motte got Ryan Zimmerman to pop out to second base a half-hour past midnight, the Cardinals streamed from the visiting dugout for hugs and high-fives. This, though, was nothing new to them.

Over the past two years, St. Louis is 6-0 when facing elimination, including victories in Games 6 and 7 of the 2011 World Series against Texas.

”It’s just the kind of people they are. They believe in themselves. They believe in each other,” Matheny said. ”It’s been this style of team all season long. They just don’t quit, and I think that just says a lot about their character.”

Down to their last strike in the Fall Classic a year ago, trailing by the exact same 7-5 score in the ninth inning, the Cardinals rallied in Game 6 and then took the championship in what turned out to be the final year with the club for slugging first baseman Albert Pujols and then-manager Tony La Russa. Now Matheny, who got the Cardinals into the playoffs as the second NL wild-card team on the next-to-last day of the regular season, has them four wins away from another World Series appearance.

And to think: Washington, which won the NL East, got off to as good a start as possible Friday.

Seven pitches, three runs. Just like that, Jayson Werth’s double, Bryce Harper’s triple and Zimmerman’s homer got the hosts jump-started in their first Game 5.

That opening outburst, plus a big third inning highlighted by the 19-year-old Harper’s homer, made it 6-0.

St. Louis was not about to go gently into the night.

”Would have been easy for us to go down 6-0 and sort of roll over and let the crowd take us out of it,” Descalso said, ”and just let them have the game.”

The Cardinals chipped away, chipped away. One run off 21-game winner Gio Gonzalez in the fourth, a pair in the fifth, another in the seventh off Edwin Jackson – the Game 3 starter and loser, and an all-around surprising choice for midgame relief.

Suddenly, it was 6-4. Then came Descalso’s homer off Tyler Clippard in the eighth. After Kurt Suzuki drove in a run for Washington to get the lead back up to 7-5, a four-run ninth against Storen – who had elbow surgery in April, returned to the team in July and reclaimed his closer role in September – completed the reversal.

”We’ve had a great year overcoming a lot of hardship,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said, ”and to not go after them at the end was not fun to watch.”

Beltran began the ninth with a double. Two quick outs later, the Cardinals were a strike away from going home. But Storen couldn’t get the last one past Molina. Same thing with Freese. Then came Descalso’s shot, sneaking past Desmond. The Nationals were inches, perhaps, from advancing. The Cardinals that near to their season finished.

Instead, they carry on, like they always seem to at this time of year. St. Louis is in the NLCS for the seventh time since the start of the 2000 season.

In Game 6 of last year’s World Series, the Cardinals twice were one strike from losing, before Freese’s two-run triple in the ninth, then Lance Berkman’s tying RBI single in the 10th. Freese’s homer won it in the 11th, the Rangers never got to pop their champagne corks, and St. Louis went on to a 6-2 victory in Game 7.

Here they were, doing it again. The alcoholic beverages waiting on ice for the Nationals wound up getting moved down the hallway to the Cardinals.

All while a Nationals Park-record crowd of 45,966 witnessed the first postseason series in the nation’s capital in 79 years. So seemingly close to a significant triumph, the Nationals – and their fans – left disappointed. Not long after the final out, a few dozen Cardinals fans gathered in the rows right behind the visiting dugout to chant, ”Let’s go, Cards! Let’s go, Cards!”

Hours earlier, the red-dressed D.C. spectators began the night with chants of ”Let’s go, Nats!” right after the national anthem, then filled the raw October air with roars as run after run scored for the home team. But over the final innings, those Washington baseball fans wound up looking on with hearts in throats.

At the outset, highlights of leadoff hitter Werth’s epic, 13-pitch at-bat from about 25 1/2 hours before were shown on the video board as he began the bottom of the first. On Thursday night, he ended Game 4 with a homer in the bottom of the ninth that gave Washington a 2-1 victory.

Picking up right where he left off, Werth doubled to the left-field corner off Adam Wainwright, and Harper followed with an RBI triple off the wall in left-center. Harper won’t turn 20 until Tuesday; no other teen had a postseason three-bagger, according to STATS.

Harper was 1 for 18 for a .056 batting average – yes, .056 – with six strikeouts and zero RBIs in the NLDS until that moment. Zimmerman completed the crescendo by driving an 86 mph cutter into the first row beyond the wall in right-center.

In 11 previous postseason appearances – mainly as a reliever – Wainwright never had allowed more than one run in any entire outing, much less three in a single inning.

Got worse in the third. Harper led off with a homer, to the same area of right-center as Zimmerman’s but a few rows deeper. Zimmerman doubled, and Michael Morse turned on the next pitch for a two-run homer to left that made it 6-0.

That was it for Wainwright, whose evening was over after 53 pitches across 2 1-3 innings.

His season, however, will continue. He plays for the can’t-quit Cardinals, after all.

”We just gave ourselves a chance to come back and be within striking distance,” Descalso said. ”And the ninth inning was pretty remarkable.”

Actually, this is what the Cardinals do.

They turn losses into wins, and then they steal the other guys’ bubbly.

— Associated Press —