Cardinals lead Giants after 6 innings of Game 4

 Matt Holliday broke out of a postseason slump with two RBIs Thursday night, helping the St. Louis Cardinals take a 6-1 lead over the San Francisco Giants after six innings in Game 4 of the National League championship series.
Holliday, hitting .167 with no RBIs in the NLCS entering the game, followed Jon Jay's single and Matt Carpenter's walk in the first inning with a single. Allen Craig, 0 for 9 through the first three games, added a sacrifice fly in the inning against Tim Lincecum, though Angel Pagan prevented more damage with a shoestring catch on Craig's sinking liner.


The first-inning trouble was nothing new for Lincecum - he allowed 28 first-inning runs this season, the most in the majors.

Carpenter narrowly missed a one-out homer in the fifth, his drive to right-center hit near the top of the wall. Holliday followed with a single and Carpenter raced home. The throw home beat Carpenter easily but catcher Hector Sanchez couldn't corral the ball that bounced off the grass in front of home plate.

Carpenter is subbing for Carlos Beltran, who tweaked his left knee in Game 3. Since entering Game 3 in the second inning Carpenter has a homer, a double, two RBIs and three runs.

Yadier Molina's two-out single scored Holliday and chased Lincecum, who allowed six hits, struck out three and walked three in 4 2-3 innings.

Jon Jay's two-run double in the sixth off Jose Mijares scored Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma. They both singled off George Kontos.

The Cardinals are up 2-1 in the best-of-seven series with Game 5 Friday in St. Louis on Friday.

Hunter Pence, 1 for 11 coming in and dropped to sixth from fifth in the order, hit a 451-homer off Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright well over the left field bullpen in the top of the second for the Giants' run. It was Pence's first RBI in nine playoff games.

The Giants missed a couple of other chances. Pagan tripled with two outs in the third but Marco Scutaro bounced back to Wainwright. Pagan and Scutaro singled with one out in the sixth but Buster Posey lined to right and Pablo Sandoval grounded to second.

The former two-time Cy Young Award winner Lincecum struggled through the regular season with a 10-15 records and 5.18 ERA - highest among qualifying starting pitchers. He had been much better in the playoffs, going 1-0 with a 1.08 ERA in 8 1-3 innings prior to Thursday. But all of that was in relief.

Wainwright rebounded well from his showing in Game 5 of the divisional series against Washington, when he surrendered six runs in 2 1-3 innings. The Cardinals rallied from down 6-0 - the biggest comeback in a postseason elimination game - to bail him out.

Wainwright was much better Thursday. He gave up just four hits through six innings and struck out four, including Sanchez looking twice. He walked no one.

Wainwright has topped 200 innings in his first season after missing all of 2011 following Tommy John surgery. He hasn't quite regained the form that allowed him to win a combined 39 games in 2009-10, going 14-13 with a 3.97 ERA.