Giants vs. Cardinals, NLCS Game 5 recap: Giants stay alive with Game 5 win

The San Francisco Giants stayed alive in the National League Championship Series with a 5-0 win against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

Trailing 3-1 in the best-of-seven game series, the Giants turned to Barry Zito in Game 5 and he responded with 7-2/3 shutout innings. Zito allowed just six hits while striking out six. The game didn't start off very promising as the Cardinals had runners at second and third and just one out in the second inning, but Zito struck out Daniel Descalso then got Lance Lynn to ground out into a double play with the bases loaded to end the inning.

After escaping the jam in the second inning, Zito settled down before being removed with two outs in the eighth inning. San Francisco struggled to score runs at points in the series, but gave Zito four runs of support in the fourth inning. The Giants scored all four runs with two outs to chase Lynn from the game.

San Francisco would add another run in the eighth inning and Sergio Romo pitched a scoreless ninth inning to close out the game and keep the Giants alive. The win will bring the series back to San Francisco as the Giants will host Game 6 in San Francisco on Sunday.