San Francisco pitcher Ryan Vogelsong rose to the do-or-die occasion, striking out nine as the Giants beat St. Louis 6-1 to stay alive in their race for a World Series berth.
The Giants’ victory tied the best-of-seven National League Championship Series at three games apiece ahead of the decisive game seven on Monday.
The winners of the series will face American League champions Detroit in the World Series starting on Wednesday.
Vogelsong stymied the reigning World Series champion Cardinals over seven superb innings and Marco Scutaro went 2-for-3 with two RBI as the Giants came out on top in a potential elimination game for the fifth time this post-season.
The Giants had climbed out of a 0-2 hole to beat Cincinnati in the best-of-five division series.
They have now pulled level against the Cardinals with back-to-back victories.
“I wouldn’t say we like it, but it seems like guys are playing really well when we get in this situation,” said pitcher Matt Cain, who will get the ball for San Francisco opposite Cardinals’ hurler Kyle Lohse in game seven.
“Guys are just kind of letting it all hang out and it seems to be working out really well.”
The nine strikeouts were a career high for right-hander Vogelsong and Pablo Sandoval added two hits, including an RBI single. Brandon Belt went 2-for-4 and scored two runs for the Giants.
The Cardinals were without outfielder Matt Holliday, who was taken from the lineup because of tightness in his back.
And St. Louis starting pitcher Chris Carpenter, a stand-out in the Cardinals’ run to the World Series crown last season, was roughed up for five runs — two earned — on six hits and lasted only four innings.
Vogelsong, who spent three seasons in Japan before returning to the US major leagues and putting together a 13-win campaign in 2011, was rock-solid from the start.
He struck out five of the first seven batters he faced and retired 13 consecutive Cardinals batters after issuing a first-inning walk.
He didn’t surrender a hit until Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma thumped back-to-back singles in the fifth.
His only difficulties came in the sixth, when Carlos Beltran doubled and Allen Craig followed with a single to account for a run that proved to be the Cardinals’ only one.
Carpenter, a former Cy Young Award-winner who returned in September from surgery that involved removing one of his ribs, wasn’t at his peak.
He walked Scutaro on five pitches, then fell behind Sandoval before the San Francisco third baseman smacked a double to center to put two men in scoring position with one out in the bottom of the first inning.
Carpenter induced Buster Posey to ground out as Scutaro scored, then struck out Hunter Pence to end the inning.
However, Belt opened the bottom of the second with a triple to the wall in right center field off Carpenter. After an intentional walk to Brandon Crawford Belt scored on a Vogelsong grounder.
Scutaro then laced a two-out double down the left-field line to score Crawford and Vogelsong for a 4-0 lead, and Sandoval increased the margin when he ended a 10-pitch at-bat with a single that scored Scutaro.
After relief pitchers Jeremy Affeldt and Santiago Casilla combined to keep it 5-1 by keeping the Cardinals scoreless in the top of the eighth, the Giants added one more run in the bottom of the frame.
Giants beat Cards to stay alive
