San Francisco Giants, Nlcs | featured news

The big curveball was back, and Barry Zito mixed in some well-placed fastballs, too. It was just like the good old days. Zito was at his best Friday night, pitching San Francisco back into the NL championship series with a 5-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that narrowed its deficit to 3-2.

One more win and another bunch of wild-card Cardinals get their chance to repeat. Adam Wainwright threw seven innings of four-hit ball and St. Louis roughed up Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants in an 8-3 rout Thursday night that gave the Cardinals a 3-1 lead in the NL championship series.

The sight of Marco Scutaro on the ground in pain after getting flattened by Matt Holliday's hard takeout was just the spark the San Francisco Giants needed. Scutaro even got into the act with his own big blow that helped the Giants end their home slide.

The San Francisco Giants advanced to the World Series by beating the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 on Saturday to clinch the National League Championship Series.

Cody Ross came through with another key hit this postseason, Matt Cain dazzled to outduel Cole Hamels and the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 on Tuesday to take a 2-1 lead in the NL championship series.

The San Francisco Giants celebrated their first playoff win in eight years, then paused to honor the man whose career they had just ended.