Adam Wainwright allowed one run over seven innings and the offense behind him flashed its division-series form as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants by a final score of 8-3, taking Game 4 of the 2012 NLCS and putting the defending champions within one win of a return trip to the World Series. Jon Jay, Matt Holliday, Yadier Molina, and Pete Kozma all had two hits for the Cardinals, who jumped on Tim Lincecum early and kept the pressure up against the Giants bullpen.
Lincecum, returning to the Giants rotation after a postseason stint as their relief stopper, struggled from the start—Holliday took advantage of a leadoff single and a Matt Carpenter walk to drive in the game's first run without an out. They scored four times in two run increments, reaching Lincecum again in the fifth and adding on against the bullpen in the sixth and seventh.
It was a broad-based offensive attack, and it puts the Cardinals in view of their first back-to-back pennants since 1968—when they lost in seven games to the Detroit Tigers despite near perfection from Bob Gibson and Lou Brock. They're still a game away from being able to worry about that kind of historical symmetry; Lance Lynn will take the mound for Game 5 on Friday.