After a crazily tense, three-hour, 10-minute, 10-inning game, the Giants have taken the lead in the National League Championship Series. The Giants started with an early 4-run lead, but the game was tied 4-4 going into the 8th, 9th and 10th innings, creating drama for everybody who managed to watch today's game. Blanco hit the winning base hit in the bottom of the 10th with two men on base, the Cardinals' Randy Choate made a fatal throwing error to first, and Brandon Crawford scored the winning run.
Once again, the game came down to a wild pitch, just like the Giants' winning game against the Nationals last week, and once again, tension was high, but the Giants still managed to get out with a one-run win.
Sergio Romo had to step in for cleanup in the 10th, and kept the game tied after the Cardinals got on base. Like I said, seriously tense.
Every game in this series has been intense, and as Hunter Pence told Fox Sports today right after the game, "It is a chess match. These games are battles, and it comes down to the little things."
This was, nevertheless, a kind of bad day for pitcher Tim Hudson. The four-time All Star and Cy Young runner-up just made his first start as a pitcher in the second round of the playoffs in his entire 16-year career. And with his 89th pitch he let the Cardinals tie the game in the 7th, and that would be his last in the game.
For more details of the throw-by-throw, see SFGate.