With Sonny Gray on the mound, the Short Stories could keep the Tall Tales off the scoreboard.
With Willians Astudillo at the plate, they could plate run after run of their own.
The Stories entered the win column with a 10-3 win keyed by their starting pitcher and catcher. Gray pitched seven shutout innings before being tagged for two runs in the eighth, and Astudillo went 3-5 from the cleanup spot, driving in five runs with two doubles and a homer.
Astudillo was key to several moments of momentum: he opened the scoring for the Stories with an RBI double in the first, added another double in the sixth to extend the lead to three, and launched a three-run blast in the eighth to extend the lead to 6-0.
It was only then that the Tales rallied back, getting two singles off Gray before Brandon Kintzler took the mound. Walt Bond loaded the bases with a single, Dave Winfield brought in a run with a sacrifice fly, and Gene Larkin doubled in two before Kintzler got out of the inning.
But the game did not remain close for long with the Stories putting up four runs in the ninth, their outburst keyed by a two-run Nick Punto triple.
With the margin in games down to one, Darrell Jackson will take on Kyle Gibson in a pivotal Game 4.