The San Francisco Giants are determined to erase the poor image they left last season when they missed the playoffs badly. So far they have accomplished that thanks to the best record in the NL and were able to add another win to their column while playing on the road.
Tonight’s victims were the St. Louis Cardinals. The NL Central side was never able to solve the Giants’ pitching and even though they had a little rally in the final innings, San Francisco cruised their way to a solid 9-4 victory at Busch Stadium.
The Giants kicked things off early with an RBI single from Michael Morse in the first inning and exploded in the second, adding four more. Angel Pagan drove Brandon Hicks in with an RBI single and Hunter Pence added a three-run shot that gave the Giants a five-run cushion early after two frames.
San Francisco’s offense didn’t stop there. Gregor Blanco drove two more runs with an RBI single to right on the fifth and Hector Sanchez did the exact same thing in the seventh. The Giants had a nine-run lead but the Cardinals woke up before it was too late.
After Kolten Wong was hit by a pitch in the eighth, Daniel Descalso and Randal Grichuk walked consecutively to load the bases. Jon Jay cleared everything with a three-run double and later scored on an RBI double from Allen Craig. That, however, would be all the offense St. Louis would generate as they couldn’t cap the rally in the ninth.
St. Louis had one final chance in the ninth but they couldn’t solve Juan Gutierrez. The right-hander struck out all three batters he faced and closed out the game in comfortable fashion, leading the Giants to an easy victory on the road.
The Cardinals never got it going and despite the fact that they woke up late, they are deserved losers against a team that dominated them from start to finish. They clearly need to improve to avoid falling further in the NL Central standings.