The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants' NLCS Game 5 might be reminding you, so far, of 2006, because a pitcher's error appears to be the turning point and Barry Zito has thrown four scoreless innings. The Cardinals trail 4-0 through four, which is not a great place to be in their first of three chances to eliminate the Giants and return to the World Series in a rematch of the one that made Pitcher's Fielding Practice famous.

But it is one of three chances to eliminate the Giants, and it is Barry Zito, against whom the Cardinals should still be considered an okay bet to rally. They're 4-15 with two doubles and a walk, so they haven't exactly been silenced—they've just been especially poor rally-planners.

Plenty of baseball left, and plenty of baseball left after that, but this is the Cardinals' last chance to clinch in St. Louis and their second-to-last chance to clinch without having to beat Matt Cain. It would be nice to see the Cardinals get on the board before the Giants decide to cash in their lottery winnings and remove Zito from the game.