Randy CHOKE!
That's how we can describe Game 3 of the NLCS from earlier today as this came down to another extra innings affair for the last 4 NL champions.
On the whole, both of these games were close, but they didn't really have that much going on in them as they may have appeared.
NLCS Game 3 came to be another classic in the form of an error. John Lackey and Tim Hudson were on the mound ready to battle and unfortunately John Lackey showed up late to the duel.
On a windy day in San Francisco, the ball was flying rather pedestrian when it got deep on the outfielders causing Grichuk to misplay a 3 run double by Travis Ishikawa for the Giants making it 4-0 giants in the first inning, right after a Hunter Pence double to open up the scoring to make it 1-0 Giants. All the runs scored in the first inning were all after the first 2 outs were made in the inning, the gritty gutty Giants found a way to stick it to the Cardinals with an early 4-0 lead and looking like they would cruise to a win in Game 3.
Well, hold on. Yes, Tim Hudson pitched great but slowly let the Cardinals chip away at the lead at they cut the deficit in half on a 2 out, 2 run triple by Kolten Wong (which was again another misplay in the outfield this time by Hunter Pence because of the hectic wind) to cut the lead to 4-2 at the beginning of the 4th inning.
A couple innings scooted by until Tim gave up another 2 out, RBI base hit as Johnny Peralta drove in a run during the 6th inning to make it a 4-3 Giants lead. Then came the 7th, where Tim Hudson was starting to show his fatigue as he gave up a hanging breaking ball to Randal Grichuk who blasted one off the foul pole to tie the ball game at 4-4 in the top of the 7th. Hudson didn't throw a pitch the rest of the night and the game then scooted along to extras where Journey played again as it should in San Francisco.
Top of the 10th inning Pablo Sandoval makes a game saving play to keep the scored tied as he kept hard hit ball from gliding down the left field line and he threw an absolute pebble to the first basemen across the diamond to send the game to the bottom of the 10th with still a 4-4 score.
Then came in reliever Randy Choate. A side winding left handed arm that could find a way to eat up some innings unfortunately couldn't quite eat enough. On a bunt by Gregor Blanco, Randy Choate fielded the ball and threw it down the 1st base line. With a man on 2nd heading to 3rd on the sacrifice bunt, the game ended itself. Giants won on this classic Game 3, 5-4 and they now have a 2-1 series lead.
In the ALCS for Game 3, a game that should have been played on Monday but was rained out. The Royals took care of business to take a 3-0 series lead by winning 2-1. The Orioles took an early 1-0 lead, but then the Royals came back by chipping away and scoring a couple non-dramatic runs to make it a 2-1 win. This was a quick 3 hour ballgame with really no major highlights outside of the huge foul ball catch by Mike Moustakas in the 8th inning. Outside of that, it was just the Royals winning their 7th postseason game and potentially could be heading to the World Series after tomorrow night!
I'll see you then!
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