The San Francisco Giants are headed back to the World Series to face the Detroit Tigers. The Giants rolled in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 9-0.
The Giants started things out in the first inning with an Angel Pagan single. Marco Scutaro singled to advance Pagan to third, and Pablo Sandoval grounded out to the pitcher to bring home Pagan. In the second, Gregor Blanco singled, Brandon Crawford grounded out to advance Blanco, and then Matt Cain singled right up the middle to send Blanco home to make it 2-0 San Francisco.
The Giants broke things open in the third inning. Kyle Lohse was relieved after loading the bases on a single to Scutaro, a double to Sandoval, and a walk to Buster Posey. Then Hunter Pence cleared the bases with an incredible hit that bounced off his bat three times and went into shallow center. Three runs scored off a fielding error to make it 5-0, and that was pretty much the game. The Giants scored two more runs in the inning off of fielder's choices, added one more in the eighth, and Brandon Belt belted one to deep right.
Cain pitched 5⅔ innings, gave up five hits and struck out four. The Giants bullpen completed the shutout by getting 10 outs.
San Francisco will host Detroit in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night.