Stingy pitching puts St. Louis in driver's seat

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0 in another pressure-packed pitchers' duel to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series on Saturday.

After holding the Dodgers scoreless for the last 10 innings of a 3-2, 13-inning win in the opener, St. Louis stifled them again, this time with hard-hitting shortstop Hanley Ramirez on the bench with bruised ribs after getting hit by a pitch on Friday.

Rookie starter Michael Wacha and four relievers combined on a five-hit shutout to extend the scoreless streak to 19 innings.

"Up to this point, we haven't been able to get the key hit," said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, whose team was 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position after being 1-for-10 in those situations in Game 1.

"We weren't able to put the run up when we needed it. If we get two key hits over the last two days, we're walking out of here up 2-0.

"It didn't happen, so we're walking out of here down two."

The only run was scored in the fifth inning when David Freese crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly to left by Jon Jay.

Freese led off with a double into the left-field corner and with one out advanced to third on a passed ball by Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis.

Freese then scored the unearned run on Jay's fly, well ahead of left fielder Carl Crawford's errant throw.

The Dodgers answered with a serious threat in the top of the sixth, loading the bases with one out. But Wacha rose to the challenge and struck out Yasiel Puig and Juan Uribe to end the inning and the 22-year-old skipped off the mound in delight.

Wacha, who came within one out of a no-hitter in the regular season finale and has continued his brilliance in the postseason, went 6 2/3 innings, giving up five hits and one walk while striking out eight.

The series shifts to Los Angeles for Game 3 scheduled for Monday.

(China Daily 10/14/2013 page24)