Dutchies in the MLB play offs: NLCS game 5

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The game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the team of batting coach Hensley Meulens went back and forth a couple of times.

Both teams had a lead before it was tied in the eighth on a solo homer by Michael Morse; the Giants relied on the long ball very much last night.

In the third inning the Cards showed some small ball when Tony Cruz advanced to second base on a sac bunt by Adam Wainwrigth. With a 0-2 count he still had the guts to lay down a bunt. After Matt Carpenter drew a walk, Jon Jay doubled to left field to drive in Cruz for the opening run. It was scored as a double, but in my opinion Travis Ishikawa misjudged the ball. Shouldn’t it be an error then?

The Giants bounced back in their third at bat. With two outs, Gregor Blanco singled on a groundball to right field, followed by a homerun of Joe Panik.

In the next inning, two solo homers by Matt Adams and Tony Cruz gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead.

In the ninth the Giants put runners on first an second before Travis Ishikawa sent the Giants to their third World Series trip in five years with his walk off, three run homerun. Pablo Sandoval led off the innning with a single and was replaced by pinch runner Joaquin Arias. After Hunter Pence hit a fly out towards right field, Brandon Belt drew a walk that put two runners on base who would be taken home by Ishikawa’s dinger.

Madison Bumgarner was awarded the MVP award of the NLCS despite not getting the win last night. In eight innings he allowed three runs on five hits, gave up two walks and fanned five. So far in this year’s playoffs Mad Bum’s ERA is 1.72 with two wins and a loss.

As far as I am concerned this will be an interesting World Series with two teams that I wanted to advance.