The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Washington Nationals two days ago with the lineup you see below, so manager Mike Matheny has decided to stick with it for Game 1 of the NLCS against the San Francisco Giants (* indicates lefthanded hitter, # indicates switch-hitter):

1. Jon Jay*, CF
2. Carlos Beltran#, RF
3. Matt Holliday, LF
4. Allen Craig, 1B
5. Yadier Molina, C
6. David Freese, 3B
7. Daniel Descalso*, 2B
8. Pete Kozma, SS
9. Lance Lynn, P

Giants lefthander Madison Bumgarner has made two starts against the Cardinals this year, allowing seven earned runs in 13⅓ innings. The Giants lost both those games, one in St. Louis, the other in San Francisco.

Current members of the Cardinals are hitting .222 (14-for-63) against Bumgarner; Beltran and Freese have homered off him in the past. Bumgarner is coming off a rough outing in game @ of the division series against the Reds, in which he allowed seven hits and four earned runs in 4⅓ innings. Bumgarner was much better at home (2.38 ERA) than on the road (4.40 ERA) during the 2012 regular season, though.