With elimination breathing down their necks, the Dodgers fought off the Cardinals in Game 5 and will live to play another day.
Behind Zack Greinke's brilliant start and a handful of long-balls the Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-4.
Zack Greinke was confronted with a tough situation right out of the gate, with bases loaded and no outs. He struck out Matt Adams and induced a double play from Yadier Molina to end the inning and an early threat from the Cardinals.
From that point, Greinke retired St. Louis in order every inning except, for the third when he ran into trouble with the top of their lineup. Matt Carpenter led off with a single, Carlos Beltran bashed a triple off the center field wall to bring him home, and Matt Holiday drove in their second run of the inning with a double.
Outside of the first and the third inning, Greinke retired all 15 Cardinals he faced.
He was pinch hit for after seven innings of six hit, two run ball with four strikeouts. He continues his streak of consecutive starts of two earned runs or less to 14.
The Dodgers provided Greinke with five runs of support, striking in the second inning with two. Adrian Gonzalez, Yasiel Puig, Juan Uribe and Greinke all singled in the inning with Uribe and Greinke driving in runs.
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The next three Dodger runs were scored off of solo home runs. Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and A.J. Ellis all slugged solo jacks giving the Dodgers a 5-2 lead by the time Greinke was removed from the game.
Just for good measure, Gonzalez tacked on another solo homer in the eighth. It tied the record for Dodger home runs in a playoff game with four.
Out of the bullpen, the Dodgers relied on Brian Wilson and Kenley Jansen. Wilson retired the side with one strikeout, but Jansen allowed two runs to score in the ninth to bring the final score to 6-4.
The NLCS moves to St. Louis for Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7. The Dodgers will be throwing Clayton Kershaw against Michael Wacha, on Friday, as they attempt to push the series to Game 7.
