The San Francisco Giants looked to be in control of the game for the majority of the evening tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals, but the Red Birds weren’t going down without a fight. St. Louis used a three run eighth inning to come from behind and take the lead, eventually winning by a score of 4-3 at Busch Stadium.
The Giants got on the board first with a Ryan Vogelsong RBI groundout in the second, which the Cards matched with a John Jay RBI single in the third. Freddy Sanchez gave the G-Men back the lead with an RBI single in the fifth, and a Cody Ross RBI single in the seventh.
Then the Red Birds’ bats awoke in the eighth, plating 3 runs off of four different Giants relievers to take the lead back 4-3, and eventually finished with the win saved by Fernando Salas in the ninth, his tenth on the year.
As for tonight’s pitchers Ryan Vogelsong pitched well in his five full innings of work, allowing only one run on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Javy Lopez (L 2-1) was tagged with his first loss of the year for his work in the eighth. As for the Cards, Chris Carpenter lasted for five innings as well, allowing two runs on seven hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. Ryan Franklin (W 1-3) was credited with the win, his first of the year.
The Giants left 11 runners on base and were only 2-15 with runners in scoring position. Rookie Brandon Crawford was the only Giants with multiple hits, going 2-4 with a double.
With the loss the Giants move to 29-25 on the year. Full box score can be found here.
San Francisco will have their third game of this four game series Wednesday, with Tim Lincecum (5-4 2.22 ERA) set to face Jake Westbrook (5-3 5.19 ERA) for the Cardinals. First pitch is set for 5:15 p.m. PT with coverage on ESPN, CSN Bay Area, and KNBR 680 AM.