The St. Louis Cardinals played well without getting the results through two-and-a-half innings, but in the bottom of the third the wheels came off—Kyle Lohse and Joe Kelly combined to let the score slip to 7-0 San Francisco Giants, meaning they'd now have to break their own postseason record to come back and take this particular elimination game. The defense didn't help, but the pitching just couldn't get things under control, and it could make all the difference.
Kelly, to his credit, came in with the bases loaded, but he wasn't able to do anything with it—he allowed two hits and walked two more. Finally Edward Mujica, erstwhile seventh-inning-guy, retired the Giants, but the damage had already been done; now the Cardinals can only hope to do to Matt Cain what the Giants just finished doing to Kyle Lohse and company.
A word, not as regional editor but generic Cardinals fan: This game isn't over yet—in part because that inning took forever—but speaking as a Cardinals fan I'm pretty okay with whatever happens here. You can only win so many absurd postseason series before you start looking like the Rocky franchise.