Cardinals deliver early blow to Giants in NLCS opener

SAN FRANCISCO — It is one game into the National League Championship Series and the San Francisco Giants’ starting rotation is a mess.

They started Madison Bumgarner on Sunday. They can’t really afford to do that again. They stashed Tim Lincecum in the bullpen. They can’t afford that either. They might need Barry Zito to save them.

All that might not be enough, considering the Giants have played six postseason games without a six-inning start, but it would help.

Carlos Beltran and David Freese each hit a two-run home run against Bumgarner, powering the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-4 victory in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday. The San Francisco relievers did not give up a hit over 51/3 innings, but Bumgarner sunk the Giants into a 6-0 hole, too deep for the home team even in this magical postseason.

Ryan Vogelsong takes the mound for the Giants in Game 2 on Monday in something perilously close to a must-win game. The Giants lost the first two games of the division series at home, then rebounded to beat the Cincinnati Reds.

“It was tremendous that we did that once,” Vogelsong said. “I think it would be asking a lot of us to do it again.”

Bumgarner was shelled in the game and shellshocked afterward, sounding anything but confident about the possibility of getting another start.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll do whatever is best.”

The America that remembers Bumgarner from the 2010 World Series, when he fired eight scoreless innings at the Texas Rangers, might be surprised to discover he has failed to last five innings in each of his last three starts.

“I’m just having a hard time,” he said. “My body feels great. My stuff is not where it normally is.”

That was the indictment against Lincecum, the two-time NL Cy Young Award winner whose fastball mysteriously vanished this season.

The Giants kept starting him, saying they would need him to succeed to realize their goals. They dumped him into the bullpen for the playoffs, and now they really do need him to succeed to realize their goals.

He pitched two hitless innings Sunday, and he has given up one run and three hits in 81/3 postseason innings. Is this the best he has felt all year?

“Confidence-wise, definitely,” he said.

Manager Bruce Bochy admitted one reason he removed Lincecum after two innings in Game 1 was to preserve the option to start him in Game 4.

Bochy also said he and his coaches would discuss whether Bumgarner should be removed from the rotation, which could mean one start for Lincecum and another for Zito.

The Cardinals field a primarily right-handed-hitting lineup. Bumgarner, a left-hander, gave up three hits in five at-bats to the Cardinals’ two left-handed batters, Jon Jay and Daniel Descalso. In all, Bumgarner gave up six runs and eight hits in 32/3 innings.

Buster Posey, the Giants’ most-valuable-player candidate, was hitless in three at-bats. His memorable grand slam in the division series notwithstanding, he is batting .182 (four for 22) in the postseason.

Lincecum would not say he should start, or even whether he expected to start. One of his post-game comments reflected, perhaps inadvertently, what appeared to be the Giants’ despair.

“Regardless,” he said, “we’re going to have these next three games.”

If this series is over after the next three games, the Cardinals sweep.

The general discombobulation also was reflected when Lincecum was asked whether Sunday might have been his regular day to throw a side session in the bullpen.

“I don’t even know,” Lincecum said, “when my regular bullpen day would be.”

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

twitter.com/Bill Shaikin