The San Francisco Giants, behind lefthander Barry Zito's pitching and hitting mastery, shut out the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 Friday night to send the NLCS back to San Francisco for Game 6 Sunday.

For Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles, it was almost miraculous:

Barry Zito, you magnificent creature, what have you done?

It's hard to imagine a better game in that situation. A 1-0 nerve-wracker behind Matt Cain would have sucked the juices out of you like a spider. A 5-0 win behind Vogelsong would have made you worry about how the rotation set up for the rest of the series. You know, because it would mean an impending Zito start, and those things are spooky. A 12-0 blowout would have been fun, but that creepy little voice in your head would have whispered "The Giants should be saaaaving these runs for Sunday," even if that's not how the world really works.

Zito's tremendous performance on the mound and his perfectly placed RBI bunt single led the Giants to victory; they'll have to win twice more, but Brisbee sees reason for optimism:

And, suddenly, all the Giants have to do is win two games at home. One of them will be started by Ryan Vogelsong. One of them would be started by Matt Cain.

Game 6 will be Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET.