Shifting; it's all the rage in Major League Baseball right now, and tonight, you're going to see some infield defenses that don't look like anything you did in Little League. However, while defensive shifts can be quite helpful, the Giants might be best off playing a little more traditional in this series.
Shifts work best against extreme pull-hitters, but the St. Louis Cardinals don't really have too many of those. On the season, their hitters pulled the ball just 1,539 times, the second lowest total in all of MLB. In contrast, they hit the ball to center field 1,510 times (#8 in MLB), and hit the ball to the opposite field 1,132 times (#4 in MLB). Overall, they only pulled 37 percent of their balls in play, a low enough total that shifting against St. Louis makes less sense than it does against most other teams.
If the Giants really want to shift, they should do it against Jhonny Peralta, who led the Cardinals with 218 pulled balls in play this year, and pulled 48 percent of his balls in play. Everyone else, though? Straight up might work just fine.
