Giants vs. Cardinals, 2012 NLCS Game 3: San Francisco fans disappointed by series loss

The San Francisco Giants had one of those frustrating performances where they kept on putting men on base but couldn't bring anyone home against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Giants piled up nine hits and five walks, but stranded 15 batters and left five runners in scoring position with two out. Hunter Pence left five runners on base and went 0-4, and Angel Pagan stranded four.

Matt Cain had a solid performance in general, going six and two-thirds of an inning. But he gave up one bad pitch that sadly led to a two-run home run. Giants fans are predictably upset by the loss. Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles has more on how Cain's performance will be forgotten here.

Then, at the worst possible time, a surprise caining! And there was a twist, an addition to the formula. Usually the cainings involve the Giants hacking away, grounding out, and flailing at pitches out of the strike zone as Matt Cain pitches well. But some boy-wonder studio exec said, wait, what if the Giants get runners on the whole game but don't score?

And just like that, there's a hook, something to make this caining stand out. It was already going to stand out because it was the playoffs, but the number of runners the Giants got on base … ah, perfect. What a twist. Soylent Green is a sled that was dead the whole time. The Giants' performance was historic. They were just the 10th team in history to get a combination of at least 14 hits and walks while scoring one or fewer runs.

The Giants were only able to score one run, and the result was a 3-1 loss in Game 3. Game 4 is Thursday night, and San Francisco will hope to avoid falling into a 3-1 series deficit.