Seeking to follow up their Game 1 victory with a similar result on Monday evening, the St. Louis Cardinals will give the ball to right-hander Chris Carpenter for the second game of the NLCS against the San Francisco Giants.
The 37-year-old Carpenter did not give up a run through 5-2/3 innings against the Nationals during his only other postseason appearance, but looks to be back in form after missing virtually the entire 2012 campaign due to injury. Carpenter is also 4-1 with a 3.57 earned-run average over eight prior starts against the Giants, and enters with 23 strikeouts in slightly more than 20 innings in his October career.
St. Louis will feature the exact same batting order from Game 1 with speedster Jon Jay atop the lineup, as third baseman David Freese is once again slated to bat sixth after smacking a clutch two-run homer on Sunday. The Cardinals will hope to get the better of San Francisco hurler Ryan Vogelsong, a veteran righty who held St. Louis scoreless over seven innings back on Aug. 8.
Here are the starting lineups for Game 2 of the NLCS:
Cardinals
1. Jon Jay (L) CF
2. Carlos Beltran (S) RF
3. Matt Holliday (R) LF
4. Allen Craig (R) 1B
5. Yadier Molina (R) C
6. David Freese (R) 3B
7. Daniel Descalso (L) 2B
8. Pete Kozma (R) SS
9. Chris Carpenter (R) P
Giants
1. Angel Pagan (S) CF
2. Marco Scutaro (R) 2B
3. Pablo Sandoval (S) 3B
4. Buster Posey (R) C
5. Hunter Pence (R) RF
6. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
7. Gregor Blanco (L) LF
8. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
9. Ryan Vogelsong (R) P