By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-.Gregor Blanco came up with a perfect bunt at the most opportune time in the game.

Blanco laid a bunt that reliever Randy Choate fielded; however his throw to first base went passed first and into right field allowing Brandon Crawford to score from second base, as the San Francisco Giants would go on to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 in 10 inning in Game Three of the National League Championship Series before a sellout crowd of 42,716 at AT&T Park.

With the victory, the Giants take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series against the Cardinals, the fourth all-time meeting between the teams in the National League Championship Series.

Crawford reached on a walk, the first baserunner to reach base since Tim Hudson reached on a single in the bottom of the fourth inning then advanced to second base on a base hit by Juan Perez to bring Blanco to the plate.

Sergio Romo pitched the 10th inning to pickup the victory just two nights after allowing a walk-off home run to Kolton Wong.

Hudson pitched an admirable game in his debut in the NLCS, as the 16-year veteran went 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits, walking zero and striking out five.

Travis Ishikawa got the Giants on the board early, as he took a John Lackey pitch in the bottom of the first inning and put it into the right-center field alley way that allowed three runs to score.

The Ishikawa double came after Lackey was able to retire Gregor Blanco on a popup to Jhonny Peralta at shortstop, and then Joe Panik was robbed of a base hit, when John Jay made a tremendous diving catch in centerfield.

Following the Panik flyout to Jay, that is when the wheels began to unravel for Lackey in the inning.

Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval each singled, and then Hunter Pence hit a double that scored Posey and sent Sandoval to third base.

With a 3-0 count on Brandon Belt, and first base open, Lackey then intentionally walked Belt to load the bases that brought up Ishikawa.

The left-handed Ishikawa put the Lackey pitch into between Jay and Cardinals right fielder Randal Grichuk to clear the bases and give the Giants a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

The four runs scored by the Giants were the most in a first inning in postseason play since Game Seven of the 1912 World Series against the Boston Red Sox.

Grichuk tied up the game in the top of the seventh inning, as he took a Hudson pitch and slammed it off the left field foul pole. It was the second home run of the postseason for Grichuk.

Lackey went six innings, allowing four runs on five hits, walking just one and striking out three.

Game Two hero Wong, who hit a walkoff home run off of Romo in the bottom of the ninth inning to even up the Best-of-Seven NLCS continues to be a thorn in the side of the Giants pitching staff.

Wong doubled with two outs in the top of the second inning for the Cardinals first hit of the game, and then got the Cardinals on the board in the top of the fourth inning, as he tripled to right-centerfield to score Jay and Matt Holliday after both singled off of Hudson to leadoff the inning.

Peralta got the Cardinals within one run in the top of the sixth inning, as he singled underneath the glove of a sliding Sandoval to score Jay from third base after the centerfielder led off the inning with a single, went to second on a Holliday groundout and then to third on a Matt Adams groundout to Belt at first base.

Hudson got out of the inning after getting the hot-hitting Wong to flyout to Blanco to end the inning.

After Hudson singled in the bottom of the fourth inning, Lackey, and relievers Marco Gonzales, Pat Neshek and Seth Maness did not allow a baserunner to reach base and retired 16 in a row from the final out of the fourth until the end of the ninth inning.