NLCS Preview: St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants

Game 1: Sunday, 5 p.m.

St. Louis (RHP Lance Lynn, 18-7, 3.78) at

San Francisco (LHP Madison Bumgarner, 16-11, 3.37)

Game 2: Monday, 5 p.m.

St. Louis (RHP Chris Carpenter, 0-2, 3.71) at

San Francisco (RHP Ryan Vogelsong, 14-9, 3.37)

Game 3: Wednesday, 1 p.m.

San Francisco (RHP Matt Cain, 16-5, 2.79) at

St. Louis (RHP Kyle Lohse, 16-3, 2.86))

Game 4: Thursday, 5 p.m.

San Francisco (RHP Tim Lincecum, 10-15, 5.18) at

St. Louis (RHP Adam Wainwright, 14-13, 3.94)

Game 5*: Friday, 5 p.m.

San Francisco (TBA) at St. Louis (TBA)

Game 6*: Oct. 21, 1:45 p.m.

St. Louis (TBA) at San Francisco (TBA)

Game 7*: Oct. 22, 5 p.m.

St. Louis (TBA) at San Francisco (TBA)

*-If necessary / All times PDT / TV: Fox

Projected Lineup

Pos; St. Louis Avg.; HR; RBI

CF Jon Jay; .305; 4; 40

RF Carlos Beltran; .269; 32; 97

LF Matt Holliday; .295; 27; 102

1B Allen Craig; .307; 22; 92

C Yadier Molina; .315; 22; 76

3B David Freese; .293; 20; 79

2B Daniel Descalso; .227; 4; 26

SS Pete Kozma; .333; 2; 14

Projected Lineup

Pos; San Francisco; Avg.; HR; RBI

CF Angel Pagan; .288; 8; 56

2B Marco Scutaro; .362; 3; 44

3B Pablo Sandoval; .283; 12; 63

C Buster Posey; .336; 24; 103

RF Hunter Pence; .219; 7; 45

1B Brandon Belt; .275; 7; 56

LF Gregor Blanco; .244; 5; 34

SS Brandon Crawford; .248; 4; 45

Keys to the series

The postseason has been replete with drama and this series should continue the trend. The Giants and Cardinals are evenly matched — they split their six games in the regular season — and have playoff experience and deep starting pitching. Many expect once-struggling Tim Lincecum to start Game 4 for the Giants after his strong division series relief appearance against the Cincinnati Reds, although San Francisco could shift to left-hander Barry Zito for that game. National League batting champion Buster Posey anchors San Francisco’s offense along with Pablo Sandoval. St. Louis is led by Carlos Beltran, who batted .444 in the division series against the Washington Nationals, but the bottom of the Cardinals order also has caught fire, with Daniel Descalso batting .316 with six runs batted in against the Nationals. The series likely will come down to the closers, and they’re good ones: Sergio Romo of the Giants had a 1.79 earned-run average in the regular season and Jason Motte had 42 saves.

Pick: Giants in seven.