Wednesday, October 9, 2002, at Busch Stadium (II) in St. Louis, Missouri The Giants struck first in Game 1 off of Matt Morris with two on via Benito Santiago's RBI single to score Kenny Lofton from second.
The Cardinals got on the board in the bottom of the inning off of Rueter on Fernando Viña's RBI groundout with runners on second and third, but solo home runs by Lofton in the third and Bell in the fifth off of Morris gave the Giants a 7−1 lead.
Thursday, October 10, 2002, at Busch Stadium (II) in St. Louis, Missouri In Game 2, the Giants went up 1−0 on Rich Aurilia's home run in the first off of Woody Williams.
The Giants added a run in the ninth on Ramón Martínez's groundout off of Jason Isringhausen with runners on first and third while Robb Nen pitched a scoreless bottom of the inning for his second consecutive save.
Saturday, October 12, 2002, at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco In Game 3, the Giants loaded the bases in the second with no outs off of Chuck Finley, but only scored once on Rich Aurilia's sacrifice fly.
The Cardinals responded in the third off of Russ Ortiz with Édgar Rentería's sacrifice fly and Jim Edmonds' RBI groundout scoring a run each after managing to put runners on second and third.
After being held scoreless for the first five innings, the Giants' bats would answer in the sixth, when J. T. Snow hit a game-tying two-run double to score Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds.
In the ninth, the Cardinals would threaten against Robb Nen, cutting the deficit to 4–3 with Edmonds' RBI single, which put runners at first and third base with one out for slugger Albert Pujols.
Monday, October 14, 2002, at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco Game 5 was a pitchers' duel between Matt Morris and Kirk Rueter throughout the first six innings as the Giants looked for their first pennant since 1989.
Despite Dusty Baker's success in San Francisco, he had an increasingly strained relationship with owner Peter Magowan, one that even the Giants' first pennant in thirteen years could not mend.
Overall, it was the third time the Giants clinched a pennant on a walk-off hit, following Kenny Lofton in the 2002 NLCS and Bobby Thompson's Shot Heard' Round The World.
Baker's Astros beat La Russa's White Sox in four games on his way to his fourth League Championship Series as manager.