ST. LOUIS — Matt Carpenter always tries to stay ready, keeping an assortment of gloves nearby. That's his job.

The St. Louis Cardinals' utility man took on a new role in Game 3 of the NL Championship Series: game-changer.

Carpenter hit a two-run homer after subbing for Carlos Beltran and the Cardinals chased Matt Cain before a 3 ½-hour rain delay in the seventh inning of a 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night for a 2-1 series lead.

"It was definitely a surprise," Carpenter said. "I didn't even realize Carlos had hurt himself, there was really no thought process.

"I was in the game before I had time to think about it."

Beltran strained his left knee running out a double-play ball in the first inning, and the Cardinals said he was day to day. He's had issues off and on with the knee throughout the season, but played in 151 games and had 619 at-bats, his most since 2008.

Kyle Lohse worked around a season-worst five walks in 5-2/3 innings. Mitchell Boggs struck out Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt with two on to end the seventh. Jason Motte earned the first two-inning save of his career to reward what remained of a sellout crowd of 45,850 that stuck around — perhaps a third — for a game that lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes, about a half-hour shorter than the delay.

"They said if we didn't score I was going to go out there. I was in the clubhouse running around, I've never really had to sit around like that," Motte said. "It was probably the most nervous I've ever been."

Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro had two hits and a clean game in the field, two days after Matt Holliday rammed him breaking up a double play. Manager Bruce Bochy had said there would be no retaliation, and Game 3 was collision-free.

"I'm sure he was gutting it out," Bochy said of Scutaro. "He was determined to play and made a pretty good recovery."

Bochy said Scutaro made the right play going to first on a run-scoring ground out by Shane Robinson that made it 3-1 in the seventh.

"Well, I don't think he had a play at home. It would have been close," Bochy said. "You can't have a better or smarter second baseman than Marco."

Cain lost for the second time this postseason, giving up three runs on five hits in 6-1/3 innings. The Giants, who entered the game batting just .217 in the postseason, were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

Pence, the Giants' fifth-place hitter, also grounded into a double play with runners on first and third in the third and grounded into a force play with a man on to end the fifth.

"I'm the goat tonight," Pence said. "I just didn't the job done."

The Cardinals snapped the Giants' five-game road winning streak in the postseason, three of them this year. Game 4 is in St. Louis on Thursday night, with Adam Wainwright pitching for the Cardinals. Tim Lincecum will start for the Giants.

"He's a guy we want out there. He's been throwing the ball well," Bochy said. "We've got to bounce back."

Bochy said left-hander Barry Zito will pitch Game 5 against Lance Lynn, leaving lefty Madison Bumgarner out of the mix for now.

"I think we feel that it's time to give Madison a little break," Bochy said.

Carpenter followed Jon Jay's two-out single with a homer off Cain in his first at-bat of the NLCS.

Beltran is batting .400 in the postseason with three homers and six runs batted in, but Carpenter had big numbers against Cain. He was 4 for 4 for his career against Cain, four singles.

"Really, there's no explanation," Carpenter said. "He's one of the best in the game, obviously. I think we all know that."

S.FRANCISCO	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Pagan cf	5	1	1	0	0	1	.286
Scutaro 2b	5	0	2	0	0	0	.462
Sandoval 3b	5	0	2	1	0	0	.231
Posey c	2	0	1	0	2	0	.200
Pence rf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.091
Belt 1b	3	0	0	0	1	1	.273
G.Blanco lf	3	0	0	0	1	0	.200
B.Crawford ss	3	0	2	0	1	0	.273
M.Cain p	2	0	1	0	0	1	.500
Ja.Lopez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
A.Huff ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.500
Mijares p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Totals	33	1	9	1	5	4

ST. LOUIS	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Jay cf	3	1	1	0	0	0	.167
Beltran rf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.375
M.Carpntr rf-1b	3	1	1	2	0	1	.333
Holliday lf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.167
Craig 1b	3	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Boggs p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Chambers rf	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
Y.Molina c	4	0	1	0	0	0	.250
Freese 3b	3	1	2	0	0	0	.273
Descalso 2b	2	0	0	0	1	0	.200
Kozma ss	3	0	1	0	0	0	.200
Lohse p	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Rosenthal p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Mujica p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
S.Robinson rf	1	0	0	1	0	0	.000
Motte p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Totals	29	3	6	3	2	3

San Francisco	001 000 000	—	1	9	1
St. Louis	002 000 10x	—	3	6	0

E — M.Cain (1). LOB — San Francisco 11, St. Louis 5. 2B — Scutaro (1), Freese (1). HR — M.Carpenter (1), off M.Cain. RBI — Sandoval (1), M.Carpenter 2 (2), S.Robinson (1). S — M.Cain. Runners left in scoring position — San Francisco 6 (M.Cain, Pence, Pagan 3, Belt); St. Louis 2 (Jay 2). RISP — San Francisco 0 for 7; St. Louis 2 for 4. Runners moved up — Sandoval, G.Blanco, S.Robinson. GIDP — Sandoval, Pence, Beltran. DP — San Francisco 1; St. Louis 2.

Giants	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
M.Cain L, 0-1	6-2/3	6	3	3	1	2	4.05
Ja.Lopez	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
Mijares	2/3	0	0	0	1	1	0.00
Kontos	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	0.00

Cardinals	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Lohse W, 1-0	5-2/3	7	1	1	5	2	1.59
Rosenthal H, 2	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
Mujica H, 2	1/3	2	0	0	0	0	0.00
Boggs H, 2	2/3	0	0	0	0	2	0.00
Motte S, 2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.00

Pitches — M.Cain 100, Ja.Lopez 5, Mijares 12, Kontos 5, Lohse 108, Rosenthal 6, Mujica 6, Boggs 9, Motte 19. Inherited runners-scored — Ja.Lopez 2-0, Kontos 1-0, Rosenthal 2-0, Boggs 2-0. IBB — off M.Cain (Descalso), off Lohse (Posey). HBP — by M.Cain (Jay). Umpires — Home, Bill Miller; First, Greg Gibson; Second, Ted Barrett; Third, Jerry Layne; Right, Chris Guccione; Left, Gary Darling. T — 3:02 (Rain delay: 3:28). A — 45,850.