Giants pounce Chris Carpenter, take early lead

SAN FRANCISCO – Suddenly, a Giants offense that look dead in the waters of both McCovey Cove and the Mississippi River is scoring at historic levels – well, at least for League Championship Series – beating up on the Cardinals' inspirational leader and pushing this NLCS toward a seventh game.

Oh, and the vaunted but at times tainted San Francisco pitching rotation is back in charge as the Giants charged out to a 5-0 lead in the first two innings of Game 6 on Sunday.

The Cardinals didn't get a hit off Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong until Daniel Descalso's single with two outs in the fifth and only had two hits as the game went into the sixth.

Meanwhile, the Giants had Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter on the verge of his second loss of the series thanks to a four-run second inning.

That was the fourth time in this series the Giants have scored four times in one inning, tying an NLCS record by five previous teams. That last one was last year's Cardinals in their six-game victory against Milwaukee.