GAME DAY: SAN FRANCISCO AT ST. LOUIS, 1 P.M.
Bruce Bochy expects Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro to be on his lineup card for Game 3 of the NL championship series.
And the San Francisco manager isn't interested in any retaliation talk.
"What's on our mind is to go out and play our best ball," Bochy said Tuesday night, a day before the best-of-seven series resumes at Busch Stadium with the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals tied at one game apiece. "That's over. You have to move on."
Results of an MRI exam showed Scutaro has a strained left hip after Cardinals slugger Matt Holliday plowed into him with a late slide while busting up a double play Monday night.
Bochy said Scutaro also had a sore left knee and held him out of a workout as a precaution after the team flight arrived from the West Coast.
"We're being hopeful he can go [in Game 3]," Bochy said. "I will say he's more optimistic about where he's at right now than when it first happened."
Giants starter Matt Cain, who will face fellow 16-game winner Kyle Lohse, said little about any carry-over animosity. Cain added that he wouldn't be afraid to throw inside against Holliday.
"You've got to go out there and pitch your game," Cain said. "If something gets away from me inside, that's kind of part of the game.
"You can't have a fear of doing that."
The 36-year-old Scutaro was an unexpected find for the Giants, batting .362 with 40 runs and 44 RBIs in 61 games after being acquired in late July from the Rockies for a minor league infielder. He's batting .250 with three RBIs in the playoffs, but has stepped it up in the NLCS, going 4 for 8 with two RBIs.
"He's driven in a lot of two-out runs and gotten rallies going for us as well," Cain said. "He's been really, really big for us."
Bochy reiterated his opinion that Holliday had made an "illegal slide," but said he hadn't talked with St. Louis manager Mike Matheny or anyone else on the Cardinals.
"I don't think there was intent, to be honest, of hurting somebody," Bochy said.
