St. Louis Cardinals Walk Off to Tie NLCS With San Francisco Giants

Oct 12, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong hits the game-winning solo home run against the San Francisco Giants during the 9th inning in game two of the 2014 NLCS playoff baseball game at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

What had shaped up to be a promising weekend in Riverfront sports took a couple of turns for the worse when the University of Cincinnati lost in blowout fashion to Miami (55-34) on Saturday and then the Cincinnati Bengals tied the Carolina Panthers (37-37) on Sunday afternoon.  Cincinnati couldn’t even come out in games that had no direct local involvement, as the St. Louis Cardinals evened the National League Championship Series against the San Francisco Giants on a walk-off home run by Kolten Wong.

After falling behind 3-2 heading to the bottom of the seventh, the Cards scored one run in each of the final three frames.  In all, the Cardinals homered off of four different Giants pitchers, including starter Jake Peavy, who lasted only four innings.

Seth Maness pitched a third of an inning and picked up the win, after starter Lance Lynn yielded to a series of relievers in the sixth.

It wasn’t all rosy for the Cardinals, as catcher Yadier Molina strained his oblique muscle in the sixth inning, and there is a chance that he will not be available for the rest of the NLCS.  If that is the case, St. Louis will have an uphill battle to make it back to the World Series without their on-field leader.

Still, the Cards are celebrating for now as the series moves to San Francisco, where they have a much better chance of winning than the Reds do.