National League Championship Series
Game 5 - San Francisco leads series 3-1
First pitch: Thursday, 8:05 p.m. ET
Line: San Francisco -145, St. Louis +135, Total: 6

The Giants look to clinch a berth to the World Series when they host the Cardinals in Game 5 on Thursday night.

St. Louis once again put together a tremendous season behind veteran pitching and timely hitting from newcomers, but the club has hit a wall against the Giants in losing three of its first four games. After a poor showing on the road during the regular season, the Redbirds are 1-3 in the postseason when playing away from home and suffered a 6-4 loss on Wednesday night in San Francisco as they tallied 11 hits and were 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position. With five hits over the past three games (11 at-bats), 2B Kolten Wong has been the team’s hot hitter with all seven of his hits this postseason going for extra bases. San Francisco has turned it on at the right time and has lost a mere two games in the playoffs so far. They also had 11 hits in Wednesday's game while going 4-for-13 with RISP as seven of the eight position players got a hit. C Buster Posey continued his great October with a 2-for-3 night and is 13-for-39 with 5 RBI and four runs overall in the postseason. Taking the mound in an attempt to keep the season alive will be RHP Adam Wainwright (0-1, 8.00 ERA) for the Cardinals as he goes head-to-head against LHP Madison Bumgarner (2-1, 0.76 ERA) for the host Giants. The road has given St. Louis trouble all season long, as it is a poor 40-45 (.471) away from home, while San Francisco upped its record at AT&T Park to 48-37 (.565) with Wednesday’s victory. These clubs have played some pretty close battles in the past with the Giants holding a slight 16-14 edge (.533) overall in the matchup over the past three seasons while going 8-6 by the bay in that time. C Yadier Molina (oblique) has not been able to play in the past two games and should be watched leading up to this one while San Francisco continues to play without both 2B Marco Scutaro (back) and OF Angel Pagan (back) for the rest of the year.

Adam Wainwright has been the model of consistency over the past seven seasons as he has pitched at least 198 innings six of the seven years while getting 19 or more wins four times. In 2014, he had his lowest strikeout rate (7.1 K/9) since 2008 while continuing to show some of the best control (2.0 BB/9) in baseball. Also, Wainwright posted a career-low 0.40 HR/9 this season while getting lucky as batters hit a mere .267 BABIP against him. He has not looked good in these playoffs though, as he has failed to get out of the fifth inning in either outing while giving up eight runs in nine innings. Overall in his postseason career (20 games, 11 starts), the veteran is 4-4 with a 3.17 ERA and 1.15 WHIP, and has struck out 9.7 batters per nine innings. When facing the Giants, he is 5-5 with a 3.11 ERA and 1.20 WHIP, and has allowed a mere two homers in his 75.1 frames. OF Hunter Pence (14-for-51, 4 doubles, 2 HR, 4 RBI) has been productive in his time against the righty, while 3B Pablo Sandoval (6-for-18, 2 RBI) has also done well. On the other hand, 1B Brandon Belt (2-for-11, 2 doubles) and C Buster Posey (2-for-11) have not done so well in the matchup. The Cardinals’ bullpen has gone 29-26 (.527) this season with a 3.61 ERA while saving 58-of-76 (76%) games.Closer Trevor Rosenthal (4.91 ERA, 3 saves) has already allowed three walks and two runs in his 3.2 playoff innings after walking 5.4 batters per nine innings in the regular season.

Madison Bumgarner has been one of the more dominant pitchers in the MLB since making his debut in 2009 while the lefty posted a career-high 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings this season and showed some impressive control (1.8 BB/9) with over 200 innings pitched for the fourth consecutive year. He has already started three games in this postseason, allowing a mere three runs (2 ER) in 23.2 frames (0.76 ERA) while having a tremendous 23:3 K/BB ratio in that time. Bumgarner is 5-3 with a solid 2.58 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 10 career postseason outings (9 starts) and has gone 3-4 with a 3.97 ERA and 1.08 WHIP, while having a 42:9 K/BB ratio in 45.1 career innings against the Cardinals over seven starts. OF Jon Jay (5-for-11, 3 doubles, 2 RBI) and 3B Matt Carpenter (3-for-5, 2 doubles) have done well in their time against the lanky left-hander, while OF Matt Holliday (2-for-16, 5 K's) and SS Jhonny Peralta (1-for-9, 1 HR, 2 RBI) have not found their stroke in the matchup. The relievers for the Giants are a stellar 36-15 (.706) this year with a 2.93 ERA and 1.05 WHIP while successfully saving 51-of-70 (73%) games. Closer Santiago Casilla (0.00 ERA, 4 saves) has allowed just one hit while striking out five (1 walk) in his six frames in these playoffs.