Who's got the edge in NLCS Game 7?

• Matt Cain faces off with Kyle Lohse in the decisive Game 7
• Matt Holliday's health is a question mark entering the game
• San Francisco has managed four four-run innings in this series

SAN FRANCISCO – It's the third winner-take-all game this month for the Cardinals. It's the sixth time in two weeks the Giants have been faced with win or go home.

Tonight's Game 7 showdown between the last two World Series champions is as unpredictable as these two teams have proven to be, but let's give it our best shot anyway.

Starting pitchers: Kyle Lohse won their Game 3 matchup in St. Louis but the Giants could argue Matt Cain was the better pitcher that night.

Lohse walked five in less than six innings but the Giants left at least one runner on base in each of those innings – a total of nine. That's the kind of pitching that usually plays into the hands of San Francisco, which needs prolonged rallies to overcome its lack of home runs.

There has been no lack of homers with Cain, who's coughed up four this postseason. That more than two per nine innings for a guy who's never had a season in which he allowed as many as one per nine innings.

Both pitchers have won a winner-take-all game this postseason. Lohse beat Atlanta and Kris Medlen in the wild-card game. Cain won Game 5 of the Division Series at Cincinnati.

Bullpens: The Giants' easy victory in Game 6 leaves both teams set up nicely, an important factor because intermittent rain is forecast. Major League Baseball will attempt to find a timeframe – the proverbial "window" – when nine innings can be played without a delay.

The Cardinals were able to stay away from their eighth- and ninth-inning guys, Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte. The Giants used their finishers – Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo – to cover the final two innings. But they did the job in 21 pitches total.

Offense: Of concern for the Cardinals is that they've more than one baserunner in only three of their past 19 innings. And this is the team that has built its playoff comebacks around a relentless approach at the plate.

But the Giants are the team that almost never scores without stringing together runners. That's not easy when your No. 4-8 hitters – a group that begins with Buster Posey and Hunter Pence – is a combined 18-for-101 in this series.

NLCS:Bats waking up at the right time

Yet, somehow, San Francisco has managed four four-run innings, including one in each of their victories.

Right now, working walks could be as important to generating runs as getting hits and the Giants have an 18-11 edge in that category.

Health: This is the Matt Holliday section, whether or not the Cardinals left fielder plays.

Holliday was a late scratch from Game 6 with a stiff back and Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said it got stiffer during Sunday's game. The Cardinals' depth in the first base/outfield mix makes this an easier call if Holliday remains iffy.

Matt Carpenter plays first and Allen Craig moves to left, the deployment Matheny used Sunday. Carpenter has less experience than Holliday, but acted like just another playoff hero out of the St. Louis mold when he stepped in for Carlos Beltran and homered off Cain in Game 3.

Cain got Carpenter out the next time, the first time he's retired him in six career plate appearances.

Plus, Holliday has been known to make post-season fielding gaffes: Missing a line drive that triggered a two-run, bottom-of-the-ninth Dodgers victory in the 2009 Division Series; or overrunning Marco Scutaro's bases-loaded single in Game 2 of this series.

Matheny might be better served saving a gimpy Holliday for pinch-hitting, especially if the field is wet.

As for Scutaro, the guy Holliday wiped out with a slide in that game, he says his knee and hip are fine. And who's to argue after two more hits Sunday made him 11-for-24 in the series.

And Beltran reports the knee issue that got Carpenter into Game 3 is no longer an issue.

Momentum: With these two teams?

Sure, the Giants would seem to have it, but both sides have turned the unlikely into an art form.

It should tell you enough that Hunter Pence actually said "momentums" after Game 5. Yes, it's in the dictionary, though momenta is preferred.

We just know it is as Mo and we're calling it a toss-up here. (But if you must have an edge, go Giants because one of the prime watering holes across from the ballpark is Mo Mo's – again with the plural.)

And if it's mojo you're looking for, that's a whole separate discussion.

Bottom line: There's a hero lurking somewhere – that's how close a call this is. One brilliant play, one little break, one extra effort is likely to decide this. You can make stats and past performances back up whatever outcome you prefer.

Factor in the atmosphere and the post-Game 6 body language and, by the slimmest of margins, it's advantage Giants.