The San Francisco Giants sure are tough to eliminate this postseason.
Barry Zito and the Giants gave themself at least one more game in the NL championship series with a victory Friday in St. Louis to force today's Game 6 back at San Francisco's AT&T Park. Just where the NL West winners want to be with their season on the line.
The Cardinals are back out West again for a trip they hoped they wouldn't have to make. St. Louis leads the best-of-seven series 3-2, needing one more win to return to the World Series.
But the Cardinals know what this Giants team already did during these playoffs: winning three straight at Cincinnati in the division series after falling behind 2-0.
Ryan Vogelsong starts for the Giants against Chris Carpenter.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, Jose Valverde threw a few pitches during a Tigers workout, then returned to the dugout as upbeat as usual.
Valverde's role for the World Series still isn't clear, but the right-hander doesn't seem to mind.
"I don't care. All I want is to be a champion," he said.
Valverde has been Detroit's closer for three years and didn't blow a save through all of 2011, but this post-season has been ugly. He lost Game 4 of the division series against Oakland and gave up four runs in the AL championship series opener against the New York Yankees. The Tigers went on to win that game and sweep the series, but Valverde hasn't been used since.
The World Series begins Wednesday at either St. Louis or San Francisco. Valverde sounds confident he has made the necessary mechanical adjustments, and so does manager Jim Leyland.
"I think everybody's making too big of a deal of the Valverde situation. Valverde's going to be ready. There's nothing wrong with Valverde," Leyland said. "I'm going to just see what happens."
After Valverde's meltdown against the Yankees, left-hander Phil Coke got the save in Games 2 and 3.
