NLCS Game 1, Giants vs Cardinals final score: Bumgarner shines, Giants win 3-0
By Hayden Kane
3. 40. Final. 0. 33
The San Francisco Giants stole Game 1 of the NLCS on the road thanks to an outstanding start from Madison Bumgarner, defeating Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals by a final score of 3-0.
It was a battle of staff aces on Saturday night. It was Madison Bumgarner for the Giants and Adam Wainwright for the Cardinals. Bumgarner prevailed in this one, pitching 7.2 shutout innings to set the Giants up for the victory in the opening game of the series.
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Bumgarner was nothing short of dominant: he allowed just four hits, issued one walk, and struck out seven hitters. He then handed the ball to Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla who closed the game out uneventfully. They say that momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher, and Bumgarner stopped the Cardinals cold in their tracks with this outing.
On offense, the Giants scored their three runs the ways that they always seem to. They pecked away, they were able to string together hits, and they were opportunistic about driving guys in. Travis Ishikawa had an RBI single, Gregor Blanco reached on an error to score a run, and Brandon Belt delivered a sacrifice fly. All of those runs came in the 2nd and 3rd innings.
On the other side of the pitching match-up, Adam Wainwright struggled once again. It took the Cardinals’ ace 98 pitches to make it through 4.2 innings before he handed things over to the bullpen to clean up the rest of the game. How Wainwright pitches in his next game will be one of biggest stories of the series, just as it was entering this game.
The “best fans in baseball” were hopping as this game got underway. They were buzzing at the possibility of another World Series appearance for their beloved Cardinals. Maybe that will still come to be, but on this night Bumgarner threw a bucket of ice water on their excitement with a spectacular pitching performance.
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