ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Game 3 of the NL championship series is being delayed because of rain in the seventh inning with the St. Louis Cardinals leading San Francisco 3-1.
The game at Busch Stadium was stopped with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. An announcement was posted on the scoreboard saying a severe weather warning had been issued by the National Weather Service.
The Cardinals and Giants are tied at one game each.
Matt Carpenter hit a two-run homer off Giants ace Matt Cain in the third inning. Carpenter came into the game after Cardinals star Carlos Beltran left after the first inning because of a strained left knee.
This is the third game delayed by rain this postseason. Two games between the Yankees and Orioles in Baltimore began late because of inclement weather.
The rain intensified less than 10 minutes after the field was covered, chasing most fans who had remained in their seats up to that point. Spotters for the National Weather Service reported 60 mph winds in nearby St. Charles County.
The storm had been widely anticipated. Some forecasts called for a 70 percent chance of rain. Both managers fielded questions Tuesday and Wednesday about whether the probability of precipitation would affect their selection of the starting pitcher.
Before the game, the Giants' Bruce Bochy and the Cardinals' Mike Matheny said weather was something they couldn't worry about. Kyle Lohse worked 5 2-3 innings for St. Louis and Cain was lifted after giving up a run-scoring groundout to Shane Robinson just before the umpires called for the tarpaulin.
"I've been caught before where you try to predict what's going to happen with the rain and started," Bochy said. "Just a couple years ago I started a pitcher thinking the same thing and it didn't rain for four or five innings. Then I put my starter in and then it started raining, and so it came back to bite me."
Matheny said rainy weather was "part of being in the Midwest."
"We get this quite a bit," Matheny said. "We understand that these guys do a good job of forecasting, but you never know for sure."
Mike Bertani, the Cardinals retired director of stadium operations, said Major League Baseball anticipated a delay of an hour or more but that it would be able to get the game in.
The tarp came out before the Giants could announce a replacement for Cain, although Javier Lopez was trotting in from the bullpen.
