Barry Zito used 115 pitches, his longest outing of the 2012 season, to defeat St. Louis on Friday, shutting out the Cardinals 5-0. Zito pitched 7 and 2/3 solid innings, thanks to some solid defense:
The Giants victory helped guarantee a Game 6 in San Francisco on Sunday.
San Francisco is hoping to defy the odds by winning the next two games. Only six teams out of 33 have ever advanced to the Wold Series after being down three games to one in the League Championship Series. That means the Giants have about an 18% chance to win the National League pennant, historically speaking.
The most recent team to come back from a 3 games to 1 deficit was the Miami (then Florida) Marlins, who won three elimination games in a row against the Cubs in 2003. The Atlanta Braves generated the same magic in 1996 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
And of course this postseason, the Giants did win three in a row to capture the best of five National League Division series against the Cincinnati Reds.
Hey anything can happen in baseball. It’s a game that is, as Yogi Berra once said, “90% physical. The other half is mental.”
