Major League Baseball

Cards continue to defy logic, narrative — continue to win

Published Oct. 13, 2014 3:35 a.m. ET

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Ken Rosenthal

The narrative is so tempting.

Catcher Yadier Molina is a decent bet to miss the rest of the postseason. Closer Trevor Rosenthal is a roller coaster in the ninth inning. Right-hander Adam Wainwright is a major question instead of a lockdown ace.

Concern, panic, doom — take your pick. Or not.

The Cardinals won Game 2 of the National League Championship Series after losing Molina to a strained oblique muscle in the sixth inning.

They won after Rosenthal got nicked for a blown save by a group of Giants players who spent significant time in the minors during the regular season.

They won, 5-4, and in this postseason of the anti-narrative, no one should be so foolish to predict that they’re anything close to doomed going forward, not with the series tied at one game apiece.

The Royals were last in the AL in home runs during the regular season, the Cardinals last in the NL. Yet, both might use their newfound Missouri Muscle to bash their way to the World Series.

Here is the final tally from Sunday night: Four home runs by the Cardinals, including three in the final three innings by players who – get this – went deep against pitchers they were facing for the first time.

Oscar Taveras, 22, hit a 2-1 splitter off Jean Machi in the seventh.

Matt Adams, 26, connected on a 1-2 fastball off Hunter Strickland in the eighth.

Kolten Wong, 24, nailed an 0-1 changeup from Sergio Romo for a walk-off in the ninth.

Don't ask how Taveras found his groove when he had only four previous at-bats in the postseason.

Don't ask how Adams passed on three curveballs and then timed the first fastball he saw, at 97 mph, no less.

And don't ask how Wong prepared for Romo, because prior to the at-bat A.J. Pierzynski told him, "Base hit, base hit swing."

Wong, who has perhaps the best bat speed on the Cardinals and occasionally takes too big a hack for a player who is only 5-foot-9, resolved not to hit a home run.

Oops.

"After I hit it, in the celebration, I went looking for him — ‘A.J., A.J., where you at? Is that good enough for you?'" Wong said afterward.

So it goes for the Cardinals. So it goes in this postseason. And would anyone be surprised if this series went seven, given the moxie of these two teams?

Let's not forget what the Giants accomplished Sunday night, rallying from a 2-0 deficit with single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh, then rallying again to tie the score in the ninth.

As astonishing as the Cardinals' young players were — rookies accounted for three of their five RBI, including Randal Grichuk's single in the fourth — the Giants' ninth-inning comeback was straight out of Triple-A Fresno.

No, check that — one of the Giants' heroes, pinch-runner Matt Duffy, never even made it to Fresno during the regular season, jumping straight from Double-A to the majors.

Pinch-hitter Andrew Susac, he of the 88 career at-bats, began the inning with a one-out single. Duffy replaced him, and Juan Perez, who endured five demotions to Fresno in four months, followed with another single.

Gregor Blanco then hit a bullet to short, and Duffy alertly avoided getting doubled off second. With two outs, rookie Joe Panik fell behind 0-2. Undaunted, he recovered for a walk, and Duffy again showed terrific base-running instincts, scoring from second when Rosenthal threw a wild pitch on ball four.

It was that kind of game. It could be that kind of series. It certainly has been that kind of a postseason.

There is no narrative. There is no logic. There is only baseball, blessed baseball, and never mind the mounting questions that both clubs face.

Neither will be extinguished easily.

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