With Jay on first, Carlos Beltrán hit a two-run home run to give the Cardinals a 6–0 lead; Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner was then replaced by George Kontos, who got Matt Holliday to pop out to end the inning.

Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter gave up a home run to the leadoff hitter Ángel Pagán to give the Giants an early one-run lead.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Giants scored four runs, three of which were unearned amid two Cardinals errors.

Brandon Crawford then reached first base on a throwing error by first baseman Allen Craig; Belt scored on the play and Blanco advanced to second.

The Giants padded their lead in the eighth inning when Ryan Theriot hit a two-RBI single with the bases loaded off Shelby Miller, scoring Blanco and Aubrey Huff.

Ángel Pagán singled to lead off the inning, advanced to third on a Marco Scutaro double, then scored on a Pablo Sandoval groundout.

The Cardinals took the lead in the bottom half of that inning, when Matt Carpenter—who had replaced Carlos Beltrán due to injury in the first inning—hit a two-run home run.

Fernando Salas pitched two innings in relief of Wainwright and, despite allowing a two-run home run to Pablo Sandoval in the ninth, held the Cardinals' lead to put them one win away from the World Series.

Zito pitched shutout ball into the bottom of the eighth inning, and the final four outs were recorded by Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo as the Giants' 5–0 win forced a Game 6 in San Francisco.

After Marco Scutaro drew a one-out walk in the first, Pablo Sandoval doubled over the head of Jon Jay as the center fielder got turned around fighting the sun and shadows during the twilight start.

Ryan Vogelsong exceeded his career high by one with nine strikeouts, and the San Francisco Giants took a 5–1 lead over the St. Louis Cardinals through six innings.

The only baserunner Vogelsong allowed was a one-out walk to Matt Carpenter in the first, until Daniel Descalso's broken-bat single to center with two outs in the fifth.

The Giants took an early lead in the first inning after consecutive singles by Ángel Pagán and Marco Scutaro followed by a Pablo Sandoval RBI groundout.

The Giants jumped on Lohse in the bottom of the third, and the Cardinal starter's night was ended after he proceeded to give up a single to Scutaro, a double to Sandoval, and a walk to Posey to load the bases.

Against Joe Kelly, Hunter Pence then hit an odd double that somehow made contact with his broken bat three times, causing it to unexpectedly knuckle away from and past the shortstop Pete Kozma.

After a single and walk reloaded the bases, Crawford and Pagán hit into fielder's choice plays to give the Giants a 7–0 lead.

A run-scoring double play by Aubrey Huff off Mitchell Boggs in the seventh inning and a home run by Brandon Belt in the eighth off Jason Motte added to the onslaught as the Giants surged ahead 9–0.

In the sloppy conditions, closer Sergio Romo then allowed both runners to reach scoring position with a wild pitch, but ultimately got Matt Holliday to pop out to Scutaro to win the series for San Francisco.

The rating peaked at 5.8 at 7:30 p.m. (Central Time Zone) before declining as viewers switched to Monday Night Football or the presidential debate.