Vintage Zito: Giants send NLCS back to San Francisco

• The Cardinals lead the series 3-2
• The Giants stave off elimination and send the series back to San Francisco
• Barry Zito made his best postseason start of his career: 7 2/3 innings, 0 runs, 6 strikeouts

ST. LOUIS – After poor performances, Barry Zito often chides himself for nibbling too much and not going after hitters enough. He had no such regrets after Friday night's masterpiece.

Lance Lynn may want to pay attention.

With his team facing the first of three possible elimination games, Zito pitched 7 2/3 innings of six-hit ball as the San Francisco Giants sent the National League Championship Series back to their bayside ballpark with a 5-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

BOX SCORE:Giants 5, Cardinals 0

WHITE:Feels like this NLCS has only just begun

A BONK & A BUNT:Giants reverse roles with key 4-run fourth

St. Louis still leads the series 3-2, but will have to beat Ryan Vogelsong or Matt Cain to earn a chance to defend its World Series title.

"He was outstanding,'' second baseman Marco Scutaro said of Zito. "We needed that badly because there was no tomorrow for us.''

The Giants put together a four-run rally in the fourth against Lynn, who was a co-conspirator with a crucial error and his own failure to challenge hitters.

In this season of redemption after years of struggling to live up to his oversized contract, the Giants won for the 13th consecutive time in a game started by Zito, whose role in the NLCS was in doubt because of a bad outing in the Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

"This was probably the biggest one for me,'' Zito said when asked where this start ranked in his career.

Facing a potent Cardinals lineup loaded with right-handed hitters, he seemed an unlikely candidate to breath life into the Giants' moribund hopes of reaching the World Series for the second time in three years. Zito was left off the playoff roster during San Francisco's march to the 2010 championship after faltering down the stretch.

"I had never seen Zito so calm, so focused,'' third baseman Pablo Sandoval said. "He was making all his pitches and was totally focused in between pitches. The fans may have thought he would be the last guy to do it, but look at the job he did.''

This year, Zito enjoyed his first winning season since joining the Giants on a $126 million contract in December 2006, and on Friday he delivered his most clutch start in a San Francisco uniform.

It was reminiscent of his last postseason win, Oct. 3, 2006, when Zito outpitched Minnesota Twins ace Johan Santana in Game 1 of the Division Series in a 3-2 victory for the Oakland Athletics.

He signed with the Giants after that postseason but went 43-61 with a 4.55 ERA in his first five seasons in San Francisco before improving to 15-8 with a 4.15 ERA this year.

"This is what we were hoping we would get, the leader of the pitching staff, the leader of a young pitching staff,'' said Peter Magowan, the Giants' managing partner when they signed Zito. "He had the track record, never been injured, never missed a start, give you 200 innings a year. It didn't work out as anybody had hoped, not the way he wanted, not the way we wanted.

"To see him rise to the occasion against a team that really is supposed to kill left-handed pitching is just tremendous. I'm very happy for him.''

Zito constantly got ahead of the Cardinals hitters and kept them off balance all night, even though he came in with a career record of 2-6 with a 4.89 ERA against St. Louis. He struck out six, and the only walk he allowed was intentional.

"I wanted to make the adjustment and put the pressure on the hitters to put the ball in play instead of trying to just be too fine,'' Zito said.

Though he has a much more overpowering repertoire than Zito's assortment of curveballs, cutters and fastballs in the mid 80-mph range, Lynn was guilty of nibbling at the worst time.

After striking out five batters his first time through the lineup, the All-Star right-hander gave up a run in the fourth when, with two runners on and one out, he threw Hunter Pence's chopper off second base and into center field.

Lynn got Brandon Belt on a soft fly to second but then walked Gregor Blanco and fell behind 3-1 to eighth-place hitter Brandon Crawford. Lynn's pitch sequence to Crawford – curveball, fastball, changeup, changeup, fastball, curve – was particularly puzzling considering he had struck out the .235 career hitter on a 94-mph fastball in the previous inning. It was the sixth time Crawford struck out against Lynn in eight career at-bats.

This time, though, Crawford stroked a 3-2 curveball up the middle for a two-run single – the kind of big hit the Giants had sorely lacked since they arrived in St. Louis.

"Yeah, he beat me on a fastball the at-bat before, and I know that, so maybe he was thinking I don't want to give him a fastball,'' Crawford said.

Zito then drove in the inning's fourth run with a perfectly placed bunt to score Blanco for a 4-0 lead. In his 13-year career, he had never before bunted for a hit.

"Instead of a one-run game, we're up three, and on top of that, Barry dropping the bunt got another run in,'' Buster Posey said of the events that started with Crawford's single. "It was really big. I don't think anybody expected that.''

The Cardinals had Zito on the ropes in the second, getting runners on second and third with no outs, but he struck out Daniel Descalso and induced an inning-ending double play from Lynn after walking Pete Kozma intentionally.

Emboldened, the veteran left-hander stayed around the plate all night – 73 of his 115 pitches were for strikes – but varied speeds and pitch patterns. Zito also got nice fielding plays from Pence, Scutaro and Angel Pagan, and an eighth-inning homer from Pablo Sandoval that increased the lead to 5-0.

"He stayed out of the middle of the plate, used all four corners of the zone and kept us off-balance,'' Cardinals third baseman David Freese said. "With his command of his stuff, if he executes his spots he's going to get guys out.''

Zito's third-inning confrontation with Matt Holliday was a perfect example of how he befuddled the St. Louis offense.

Holliday, who struck out twice against Zito and three times overall, fouled off a 3-2 curveball, then whiffed on an 86 mph fastball that must have seemed 10 mph faster.

"That's what pitching is,'' Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "You don't have to have 99 on your fastball if you can locate and keep hitters off balance.''

That, Zito did, all night long.