THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2012
PAGE 9B
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Cardinals blank Nationals, take 2-1 lead
Ryan McCarthy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Chris Carpenter was every bit the postseason ace he's been in the past for the St. Louis Cardinals.
St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Carlos Beltran catches a fly ball that was hit by Washington Nationals' Jayson Werth in the third inning of Game 3 of the National League division baseball series on Wednesday in Washington.
taking the mound for only the fourth time in 2012, missing a rib after surgery to cure numbness on his right side, the 37-year-old Carpenter pitched scoreless ball into the sixth inning, rookie Pete Kozma delivered a three-run homer, and the defending champion Cardinals beat the Washington Nationals 8-0 Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead in their NL division series.
"If the baseball world doesn't know what an amazing competitor he is by now, they haven't been paying any attention," Carpenter's teammate Matt Holliday said. "Every guy on this team has watched him work his way back, watches him in between starts. He's a stud, just a guy that you want out there."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
All in all, it was quite a damper on the day for a Nationals Parkrecord 45,017 red-wearing, toweltwirling fans witnessing the first major league postseason game in the nation's capital in 79 years.
Three relievers finished the shutout for the Cardinals, who can end the best-of-five series in Thursday's Game 4 at Washington.
"We're not out of this, by a long shot," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. "Shoot, I've had my back to worse walls than this."
Kyle Lohse will start for St. Louis. Ross Detwiler pitches for Washington, which is sticking to its long-stated plan of keeping Stephen Strasburg on the sideline the rest of the way.
The Cardinals won 10 fewer games than the majors-best Nationals this season and finished second in the NL Central, nine games behind Cincinnati, sneaking into the postseason as the league's second wild-card under this year's new format. But the Cardinals become a different bunch in the high-pressure playoffs — no matter that slugger Albert Pujols and manager Tony La Russa are no longer
around.
Carpenter still is, even though even he didn't expect to be pitching this year when he encountered problems during spring training and needed an operation in July to correct a nerve problem. The top rib on his right side was removed, along with connecting muscles.
He returned Sept. 21, going 0-2 in three starts totalling 17 innings, so it wasn't clear how hed fare Wednesday.
Yeah,right.
"I'm not going to go out there and compete," Carpenter said, "if I'm not good enough to compete."
Similarly, neither club could be
Carpenter allowed seven hits and walked two across his 5 2-3 innings to improve to 10-2 over his career in the postseason. That includes a 4-0 mark while helping another group of wild-card Cardinals take the title in the 2011 World Series, when he won Game 7 against Texas.
sure which Edwin Jackson would show up for NL East champion Washington, a year after he was part of the Cardinals' championship team: The one who struck out 10 and allowed one uneared run in eight innings against St. Louis on Aug. 30, or the one who lasted only 11-3 innings in a loss to the Cardinals on Sept. 28.
"Carp's been a dominant pitcher his whole career. Big-game pitcher. He showed up." Washington's Jayson Werth said. "He pitched well today. We had him in some spots. We had him on the ropes a couple of times. We were just one bloop away from a totally different ballgame."
"I didn't feel like I was out of rhythm. I didn't feel like I couldn't throw strikes. I just missed across
With the exception of Ian Desmond — 3 for 4 on Wednesday, 7 for 12 in the series — the Nationals' hitters are struggling mightily. They've scored a total of seven runs in the playoffs and went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base in Game 3.
Rookie phenom Bryce Harper's woes, in particular, stand out. He went 0 for 5, dropping to 1 for 15. He went to the plate with an ash bat and no gloves in the first inning, tried wearing anti-glare tinted contact lenses on a sun-splashed afternoon — nothing helped.
Carpenter was pretty good with a bat in his hands, too, collecting a pair of hits, including a double off the wall that was about a foot or two away from being a homer. When he reached second base, he raised his right fist.
Much closer to the second version, it turned out, although he did recover from a rough start to retire eight of his last 10 batters Wednesday.
Still, Jackson was done after five innings and four runs.
the plate with a couple of balls and it cost me?" Jackson said.
The Cardinals tacked on four runs off relievers Craig Stammen, Christian Garcia and Ryan Matthew.
Not since the original Senators lost to the New York Giants in the 1933 World Series had big league baseball stretched past the regular season in Washington. Back then, of course, there was no MLB Network in HD to carry a game the way there was Wednesday; indeed, television itself was in its infancy, period. And spectators in attendance way back then could not enjoy a beer at the ballpark, because prohibition wasn't repealed until a couple of months later.
With the Capitol Dome rising beyond left field, the crowd of today was ready to root, root, root for the home team, breaking into chants of "Let's go, Nats!" after player introductions and again after a four-jet flyover. And, boy, did they boo — when Cardinals outfielder John Jay was announced as the game's first batter, when catcher Yadier Molina trotted to chat with Carpenter, even when Carpenter paused between pitches to tie his red-and-gray right shoe.
Most of all, they booed when Washington's Danny Espinosa was ruled out at first after bunting in the second. TV replays showed that Espinosa did beat third baseman David Freese's throw, but the call
was missed by Jim Joyce — an umpire best known for blowing a call at first base to ruin Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga's bid for a perfect game in 2010.
Earlier, those boos were directed at Jackson.
The Cardinals opened the second inning with four consecutive hits, the biggest being Kozma's first-itchomer into the first row in left off a 94 mph fastball to make it 4-0. Kozma took over as the Cardinals' everyday shortstop in September, replacing injured All-Star Rafael Furcal, and only had 72 at-bats during the regular season.
But he's only the latest in a series of "Who's that?" stars of this post-season.
MLB
Giants beat up on Reds, Lincecum a factor
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CINCINNATI — Angel Pagan connects on the second pitch of the game. A Giants team that finished last in homers goes on to hit three. Tim Lincecum pitches like a two-time Cy Young winner — this time, out of the bullpen.
So many unusual things moved San Francisco to the verge of an unprecedented comeback.
Pagan hit the first leadoff homer in Giants postseason history, and Gregor Blanco and Pablo Sandoval connected later for an 8-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday that evened their NL division series at 2-all.
No team has recovered from a
2-0 deficit in a best-of-five series by winning three on the road, according to STATS LLC. This one can do it with a victory on Thursday at Great American Ball Park.
"Thanks to the win today, there will be a tomorrow," Pagan said. "And we are ready for that."
Matt Cain, who lost the series opener and has yet to beat the Reds in three tries this season, will start Game 5 against Mat Latos.
Facing elimination, the Giants' slumping hitters came out swinging and extended Cincinnati's playoff misery. The Reds haven't won a postseason game at home in 17 years.
One thing in the Reds' favor — they haven't dropped three straight at home all season.
"I'd like to think that we still have the advantage," Reds outfielder Jay Bruce said. "We're at home. I expect Mat to come up with a big game. I'm looking forward to it."
So are the Giants, who were down after losing the first two games at home while getting outscored 14-2. They were barely able to get a hit, let alone a win.
The pressure pulled them closer. Hunter Pence gathered them for inspirational speeches before the two games in Cincinnati, challenging them to play like champions.
"We feel good," NL batting champion Buster Posey said. "When you're down 0-2 you see what you're made of. We're not done."
It wasn't all about the offense. San Francisco's overlooked Cy Young
winner played a starring role, too.
Linceum was relegated to the bullpen for the playoff series because of his dreary season — 15 losses, 17 wild pitches. He entered in the fourth inning, pitched out of a threat that kept the Giants up 3-2, and kept going. The right-hander struck out six while allowing just one run in 4 1-3 innings.
"I knew he would play a huge role in this," manager Bruce Bochy said. "And I know of other situations where starters have been in the 'pen and really done a great job to help their team win. We knew Timmy would play a critical role in the series like he did tonight."
The way the Giants have started hitting, that's now in doubt.
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San Francisco Giants players celebrate after defeating the Cincinnati Reds 8-3 in Game 4 of the National League division baseball series, Wednesday, in Cincinnati.