(AP) -- Doesn't matter how bad things look for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Trailing by a bunch, down to their last strike, they simply stay calm and do what it takes to win.

Erasing an early six-run hole in Game 5 slowly but surely, the defending World Series champion Cardinals got a tying two-out, two-run single from Daniel Descalso and a go-ahead two-run single from Pete Kozma in the ninth inning and came all the way back to beat the Washington Nationals 9-7 Friday night and win their NL division series.

It was the largest comeback ever in a winner-take-all postseason game, according to STATS LLC.

No other club in this sort of ultimate pressure situation had come back from more than four down.

National League Championship Series

All games televised by Fox 

Sunday, Oct. 14: St. Louis (Lynn 18-7) at San Francisco (Baumgarner 16-11), 8:15 p.m.
 
Monday, Oct. 15: St. Louis at San Francisco (Vogelsong 14-9), 8:07 p.m.
 
Wednesday, Oct. 17: San Francisco at St. Louis, 4:07 p.m.
 
Thursday, Oct. 18: San Francisco at St. Louis, 8:07 p.m.
 
x-Friday, Oct. 19: San Francisco at St. Louis, 8:07 p.m.
 
x-Sunday, Oct. 21: St. Louis at San Francisco, 4:45 p.m.
 
x-Monday, Oct. 22: St. Louis at San Francisco, 8:07 p.m.

 Left-hander Madison Bumgarner will pitch Game 1 of the NL championship series at home Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Manager Bruce Bochy chose right-hander Ryan Vogelsong as his Game 2 starter for Monday.

The Giants waited out the ending of the wild-card Cardinals' thrilling comeback at Washington on their team plane in Cincinnati before heading home to the Bay Area.

Bumgarner, a 16-game winner this year, lost Game 2 of the NL division series at home to Cincinnati.

NL West champion San Francisco, back in the NLCS for the second time in three years, rallied from a 2-0 division series deficit to beat the Reds on Thursday night, then stayed put in Ohio to learn its opponent.

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)