| Year: | 2012 |
| Champion: | San Francisco Giants (4) |
| Champion Manager: | Bruce Bochy |
| Champion Games: | 94–68,, GA: 8 |
| Runnerup: | St. Louis Cardinals (3) |
| Runnerup Manager: | Mike Matheny |
| Runnerup Games: | 88–74,, GB: 9 |
| Date: | October 14–22 |
| Mvp: | Marco Scutaro (San Francisco) |
| Television: | Fox |
| Announcers: | Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, Ken Rosenthal, and Erin Andrews |
| Radio Network: | ESPN |
| Radio Announcers: | Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton |
| Umpires: | Gary Darling (crew chief), Chris Guccione, Bill Miller, Greg Gibson, Ted Barrett, Jerry Layne[1] |
| Lds1: | St. Louis Cardinals over Washington Nationals (3–2) |
| Lds2: | San Francisco Giants over Cincinnati Reds (3–2) |
The 2012 National League Championship Series was a best-of-seven playoff pitting the San Francisco Giants against the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League pennant and the right to play in the 2012 World Series. The series, the 43rd NLCS in league history, began Sunday, October 14, and ended Monday, October 22, with Fox airing all games in the United States. In shades of the 1996 NLCS, a series where the Cardinals blew a 3–1 series lead where they were outscored 32–1 over the final three games, the Giants came back from a 3–1 deficit and outscored the Cardinals, 20–1, over the final three games to win the series, 4–3.
This was the third postseason meeting between the Giants and the Cardinals and also marked the first time in MLB history since the creation of the League Championship Series in 1969 that the last two World Series champions faced off against each other for the pennant.[2] The Giants won in while the Cardinals won in . Coincidentally, the previous two postseason meetings between the two teams occurred in the NLCS, which both ended on October 14 (the day of 2012's Game 1): the Cardinals won Game 7 of the 1987 NLCS, and the Giants triumphed in the pennant-clinching Game 5 of the 2002 NLCS.
The Giants would go on to sweep the Detroit Tigers in the World Series in four games.
The Giants scored first in the third inning. Ángel Pagán singled to lead off the inning, advanced to third on a Marco Scutaro double, then scored on a Pablo Sandoval groundout. The Cardinals took the lead in the bottom half of that inning, when Matt Carpenter—who had replaced Carlos Beltrán due to injury in the first inning—hit a two-run home run. Giants starter Matt Cain only allowed one baserunner over the next three innings, but the Cardinals got an insurance run in the seventh inning. After David Freese doubled with one out, Cain intentionally walked Daniel Descalso. Pete Kozma then singled to load the bases. Shane Robinson then grounded out, scoring Freese on the play.
After Robinson grounded out, there was a 3-hour-and-28-minute rain delay. When the game resumed—with Kozma and Descalso still on base—Javier López replaced Cain and got Jon Jay to ground out to end the inning. Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse earned the win with 5 2/3 innings, allowing just the one run, while Jason Motte pitched two perfect innings for the Cardinals to earn his third save of the postseason.
Strong pitching by starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong helped the Giants to a 6–1 victory. The Giants became the first team since the 2008 Boston Red Sox to come back from a 3–1 deficit to tie the series (although the 2008 Red Sox would lose Game 7), and first in the National League since the 2003 Florida Marlins.
After Marco Scutaro drew a one-out walk in the first, Pablo Sandoval doubled over the head of Jon Jay as the center fielder got turned around fighting the sun and shadows during the twilight start. Scutaro scored on Posey's groundout to third to give the Giants a 1–0 lead and the NL batting champion his first RBI of the series. Brandon Belt tripled to right-center leading off the second. Gregor Blanco struck out swinging and Brandon Crawford was intentionally walked. With Crawford trying to steal second on the pitch, Vogelsong chopped a ball that shortstop Pete Kozma could not handle as Belt scored. One out later, Scutaro doubled to left to score and Sandoval singled on the 10th pitch from Chris Carpenter to score Scutaro to put the Giants ahead 5–0.
Ryan Vogelsong exceeded his career high by one with nine strikeouts, and the San Francisco Giants took a 5–1 lead over the St. Louis Cardinals through six innings. The only baserunner Vogelsong allowed was a one-out walk to Matt Carpenter in the first, until Daniel Descalso's broken-bat single to center with two outs in the fifth. Pete Kozma also singled before Vogelsong got pinch-hitter Skip Schumaker to ground out to first. Allen Craig's single in the sixth drove home Carlos Beltrán, who doubled with two outs, for the Cardinals' only run.
Chris Carpenter was replaced after allowing six hits and five runs, three unearned, in four innings. He walked two and struck out six. Matt Carpenter replaced Matt Holliday at first base in the St. Louis lineup and batted second when the left fielder was scratched about 45 minutes before first pitch because of lower back tightness. Allen Craig shifted from first to left field, and Beltrán slid back a spot to third in the batting order, while playing right field.
The Giants got one more run in the eighth on Ryan Theriot's RBI single off of Edward Mujica with two on, the run charged to Mark Rzepczynski.
The 10 unearned runs allowed by the Cardinals in the series were the most in NLCS history, according to STATS LLC.[3]