3 Kevin Pillar, 46 percent
With the National League’s best record since the All Star break, the St. Louis Cardinals are hard to put away these days. Wednesday night, however, Kevin Pillar finally found a way.
The Giants were experiencing one of those nights visiting teams are so familiar with in St. Louis, where killing the Cardinals seems akin to killing a vampire. The Cards erased 4-0 and 7-4 Giant leads, using a four-run sixth to build an 8-7 lead.
Statistically, the odds of a Giants win had fallen from 85 percent as late as the sixth inning to just 26 percent by the start of the eighth. Coming off 3-1 and 1-0 wins the previous two nights, it looked like another typical Cardinal home performance.
Not this time, however. Facing hard-throwing Giovanny Gallegos, Pillar came to the plate with one out and Evan Longoria at first base in the top of the eighth. He took a strike, then turned around the next pitch for a 440-foot home run that thrust San Francisco on top once again, this time 9-8.
And this time, unlike most of the rest of the evening, the Cardinals would stay dead. Tony Watson and Will Smith combined to retire six of the final nine hitters, Smith working around a pair of ninth inning walks.