The St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants traded big fourth innings in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday, with the Cardinals putting four runs on Madison Bumgarner and the Giants responding with four more of their own. After four, with both starters knocked out of the game, the score at AT&T Park is 6-4
The Cardinals' inning went as planned for this postseason—big hits from Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma, and then a two-run homer from Carlos Beltran. Combined with their two-run homer from David Freese earlier in the game, it couldn't have been a more typical piece of scoring on their end. For their troubles they'll get Tim Lincecum, who's been a kind of shutdown long reliever in the postseason so far.
The Giants just pushed base hit after base hit past Lynn, who'd been strong through three. He saw nine hitters before Mike Matheny, who didn't have anybody warming, got Joe Kelly into the situation; Kelly was saved only when Daniel Descalso made a diving play on a grounder up the middle.