NLCS

Wednesday, Oct. 9

San Francisco (Rueter 14-8) at St. Louis (Morris 17-9), 7:19 p.m. (Fox or Fox Sports Net)

Thursday, Oct. 10

San Francisco (Schmidt 13-8) at St. Louis (Williams 9-4), 7:19 p.m. (Fox)

Saturday, Oct. 12

St. Louis (Finley 11-15) at San Francisco (Ortiz 14-10), 3:20 p.m. (Fox)

Sunday, Oct. 13

St. Louis (Benes 5-4) at San Francisco (Hernandez 12-16), 7:50 p.m. (Fox)

Monday, Oct. 14

St. Louis at San Francisco, 7:20 p.m., if necessary (Fox)

Wednesday, Oct. 16

San Francisco at St. Louis, 4:20 p.m., if necessary (Fox)

Thursday, Oct. 17

San Francisco at St. Louis, 7:20 p.m., if necessary (Fox)

Linescore

Game 5

San Francisco 010 100 100--3 6 2

Atlanta 000 001 000--1 7 0

RuOrtiz, Fultz (6), FRodriguez (6), Worrell (7), Nen (9) and BSantiago; Millwood, CHammond (6), Remlinger (7), Holmes (7), Smoltz (8) and JLopez, Blanco (8). W--RuOrtiz 2-0. L--Millwood 1-1. Sv--Nen (2). HR--San Francisco, Bonds (3).

What to

watch for

-- Battling Barry. La Russa might be best suited to figure out how to deal with Bonds after watching teams try to avoid Mark McGwire for years. Bonds showed signs of breaking through his postseason struggles with three homers in the division series. If Cardinals walk Bonds, Santiago must make them pay.

-- Replacing Rolen. Rolen will be missed as much for his stellar glove as for his big bat in the middle of the Cardinals lineup. But St. Louis played just fine without him for the first four months of the season. Cairo came up with the clutch hits in his place against Arizona.

-- Living with Livan. Despite losing 16 games in the regular season, Baker stuck with Hernandez in the division series. The move paid off when Hernandez delivered 8 1-3 strong innings to win Game 4. That should come as no surprise. The MVP of the 1997 NLCS and World Series is 6-0 in his career in the postseason.