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NLCS Game 3, Giants vs. Cardinals Final Score: San Francisco Walks Off, Takes 2-1 Series Lead

By Josh Hill

Oct 14, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt (9) celebrates with right fielder Hunter Pence (8) and third baseman Pablo Sandoval (48) after all three scored during the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals in game three of the 2014 NLCS playoff baseball game at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 14, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt (9) celebrates with right fielder Hunter Pence (8) and third baseman Pablo Sandoval (48) after all three scored during the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals in game three of the 2014 NLCS playoff baseball game at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /
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Final. 4. 33. 5. 40

After trading blows in the first two games of the NLCS, the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals turned in another gem that saw the Giants take a 2-1 series lead.

San Francisco Giants fans watched their team take a four run lead they amassed in the first inning and somehow turn that into a contest that needed extra innings to be decided. It was a ruckus first inning for the Giants who came out guns blazing to take a 4-0 lead that looked like it might choke out the Cardinals early.

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But as we’ve seen a couple of times this postseason, you can’t count the Cardinals out — ever. Game 2 hero Kolten Wong took a Tim Hudson pitch to deep right field on a triple that scored John Jay and Matt Holiday. That made it a 4-2 lead for the Giants but it was a lead that shrunk again in top of the sixth when Jhonny Peralta hit an RBI single that scored John Jay for a second time on the afternoon.

The biggest blow of the afternoon came an inning later when Randal Grichuk chased Tim Hudson after 6 1/3 innings pitched by blowing up a pitch for a 384 foot home run. That tied the game at 4-4 but it didn’t swing all of the momentum towards the Cardinals.

San Francisco remained resilient and managed to keep the Cardinals from running away with the game and forced extra innings where they used some of that Giants magic that has worked all season long. After getting out of the top half of the tenth inning, the Giants got two lucky breaks in a row that saw the game won on a throwing error by reliever Randy Choate.

Juan Perez failed to get down a sacrifice bunt to advance Brandon Crawford, but with two strikes on the count the hit a laser to center field that kept the inning alive. It was on the next batter that the game was won, as Gregor Blanco laid a bunt down the third base line that Choate threw way to the right of Matt Adams an into right field.

Perez’s hit was the first that the Giants had since Tim Hudson got a hit in fourth inning. But the wait was worth it as everything fell into place for San Francisco to give them a 2-1 series lead in the NLCS.

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