The San Francisco Giants got off to an early lead Monday night in Game 2 of the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals, with leadoff hitter Angel Pagan pulling a home run into McCovey's Cove to make the score 1-0 after half an inning. It's Pagan's second home run of the postseason after he hit eight in 154 games of the regular season. Chris Carpenter gave up a single to the next batter and walked another, but got two foul outs and a grounder to escape the inning.
The lead is apparently the Giants' first postseason lead of the year, and they'll rely on Ryan Vogelsong to do it. He walked Carlos Beltran and allowed a single to Matt Holliday before retiring Yadier Molina on a ground ball to end the first-inning threat.
Carpenter, 10-2 in his postseason career, threw 5.2 shaky shutout innings in his lone start of the NLDS. He got the win and he didn't allow a run, but he looked about as hittable as someone can get while fulfilling those parameters, especially early—which is to say that the Giants should pile on if they get the chance.