Cardinals head back to drawing board with ACE giving up game 1
Prior to game one of the 2014 National League Championship Series, we had serious questions regarding the health of St. Louis Cardinals ACE Adam Wainwright. For the second consecutive game, he was limited to pitching under five innings through post-season play thus far. The Giants were on a hot streak winning 11 of their last 12 playoff games, including 6 straight road victories and were looking to continue their recent elite play.
If there was any series the National League could’ve produced with the two most successful teams in their respective conference, it was San Francisco and St. Louis. The Giants bats would come alive early on a field error from righter Randal Grichuk dropping a deep hit by Pablo Sandoval. Following a Hunter Pence walk and a Brandon Belt single, the bases were loaded and Wainwright’s worst fear was happening to him in the home crowd.
First-baseman Travis Ishikawa was soon up to bat and singled to shallow left on a blooper drop and San Francisco was on board for their first score. Center-fielder Greg Blanco was soon up to bat and lined one to 3rd base, but Matt Carpenter had issues with controlling the grounder, leading to another error and unfortunate score from Hunter Pence on the force. However, the real story of this game was Madison Bumgarner, who gave up only 4 total hits through 7 and 2/3’s inning pitching – with a whopping a 7 strikeouts.
San Francisco gave their ACE big relief early in the game with strategic scoring, which put immerse pressure on the entire Cardinals. Now with their homefield advantage gone, St. Louis now looks to even up the series tonight at home, with a game 2 start of 8pm ET on Fox Sports 1. Jake Peavy and Lance Lynn have been penciled in to start.