Cardinals, Giants advance with playoff wins

The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants booked a National League finals showdown after each team won to advance in the Major League Baseball playoffs.
Matt Adams smashed a three-run home run in the seventh inning to lift St. Louis over the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2, while Joe Panik scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch in the seventh to give the Giants a victory over the Washington Nationals by the same score.
Both the Cardinals and Giants captured their best-of-five series three games to one to reach the best-of-seven National League Championship Series that opens Saturday.
It marks the fourth NL finals appearance in a row for the Cardinals, who seek their second World Series title in four seasons after having lost last year's final to Boston.
The Giants will try to claim their third World Series crown in five campaigns after their record seventh consecutive playoff series victory.
"We just go as hard as we can, give it everything we've got," Giants star Hunter Pence said. "Good pitching and good fielding has been a foundation for everything we've done.
"It has been a remarkable journey. I wouldn't trade it for the world."
Either the Giants or Cardinals will face the American League champion, the Baltimore Orioles or Kansas City Royals, in the World Series starting October 21.
At St. Louis, Dodgers star pitcher Clayton Kershaw struck out nine, including all three St. Louis batters in the sixth inning, but the 26-year-old left-hander was undone in the seventh inning by a Cardinals rally.
"Our guys kept fighting and kept pushing and never got down," Cardinals standout Matt Holliday said. "Right now we are feeling as good as we have all season."
Holliday and Jhonny Peralta each singled to open the seventh and Adams followed with his blast over the right-field fence to give the Cardinals their margin of victory.
"I took a step back, took a deep breath and tried to get focused back into the strike zone," Adams said. "I had a pretty good idea it was gone when I hit it."
Kershaw went 21-3 this season but fell to 1-5 in career playoff games, four of them losses to St. Louis.
"We will look at everything about how we need to improve to get better," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.
The Dodgers put runners on first and second base in the ninth but Carl Crawford then grounded into a game-ending fielder's choice.
The Dodgers scored twice in the sixth inning in a flurry that began when Crawford opened with a single, advanced to third on an Adrian Gonzalez single and scored when Matt Kemp grounded into a double play.
Hanley Ramirez was hit by a pitch and took first base, then reached second when Andre Ethier walked and scored when Juan Uribe followed with a single.
- Giants never trailed -
 At San Francisco, the Giants jumped on top 2-0 in the second inning after Brandon Crawford singled and took second on a fielding error by Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez that allowed Juan Perez to reach first.
Ryan Vogelsong loaded the bases with a bunt single and Gonzalez walked Gregor Blanco to give the Giants their first run. Panik followed with a ground out that allowed Perez to score.
Washington answered in the fifth inning when Ian Desmond singled to left field and scored on Bryce Harper's double to left.
Harper smashed a solo homer in the seventh that pulled the Nationals level at 2-2, the 21-year-old slugger belting his third homer of the series.
San Francisco plated the deciding run in the bottom half of the inning when Panik singled, took second on a Buster Posey single, went to third when Hunter Pence walked and scored on a wild pitch by Aaron Bennett to produce the winning margin.
Source: AFP