The Giants just won their third World Series, in five years. This of course is very fresh in all of our collective memories, just two days removed from the parade and rally at City Hall. I am completely puzzled as this team that I grew up with, hoping to witness one World Series win before my expiration date has turned into +2. Really? Really? Absolutely giddy. When at work and my energy seems to wane or my irritation increases, my co-worker leans over and reminds, "the Giants just won the World Series" and I feel better, fortified, willing to forgive. I want to dance. I want to sing.
Just for memories sake, the Giants ran through Pittsburgh in a one game Wild Card elimination, heartily crushing the Pirates 9-0 (Bumgarner, Brandon Crawford grand slam) while the A's lost a heartbreaker after entering the 8th inning with a 7-3 lead behind their ace- to the Royals, a team that barely made it to the playoffs but a team we would find to never give up.
Moving on to play the top ranked Washington Nationals, led by former Giant Matt Williams in his first year as skipper, the Giants succeeded by their pitching Jake Peavy, MadBum, Ryan Vogelsong, Tim Hudson, all pitched well and especially the entire bullpen, notably Yusmeiro Petit who came into a tied, stressful extra inning game and threw 6 shutout innings in an 18 inning game. This was the longest game ever for a playoff and the Giants were down to their last out losing 1-0 with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. Joe Panik coaxed a tough walk and Jordan Zimmerman was pulled from the game. Buster Posey greeted the reliever with a single and Pablo Sandoval scorched a double driving in Panik and nearly Posey, who was out at home. Then the tension built for another nine innings until Brandon Belt homered in the 18th and Hunter Strickland survived the bottom of the 18th. This might have been the game that the Giants could look to, as evidence that they could overcome any obstacles to in their path.
| Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | PC-ST | ERA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T Hudson | 7.1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 97-69 | 1.23 | |
| J Machi | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7-5 | 0.00 | |
| J Lopez | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3-2 | 0.00 | |
| S Romo | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 12-8 | 0.00 | |
| J Affeldt | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 15-8 | 0.00 | |
| S Casilla | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11-6 | 0.00 | |
| Y Petit (W, 1-0) | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 80-46 | 0.00 | |
| H Strickland (S, 1) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 29-18 | 9.00 | |
| Totals | 18.0 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 0 | 254-162 | ||
| I'm not sure who the hitting stars of this series were: Buster had some timely singles but the Giants scored many runs (it seemed) through various unique methods of tiny, small ball (ground outs, walks, errors, sacrifice flies, grounders, double plays). |
|---|
| Game 5 was a narrow 3-2 victory (shades of Game 7 of the World Series!) with Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla closing out the 8th and 9th innings. |
|---|
| On to the favored St.Louis Cardinals, who have appeared in the last 4? NLCS, and 2 of the last 3 World Series. The Royals in the meantime swept the #1 Angels in 4 games, and would also sweep the Baltimore Orioles as well. |
|---|
| The Giants win this series in five games in very grand fashion with Travis Ishikawa, our left fielder? crushing a three run home run at AT&T Park in the bottom of the 9th, a game where we needed a pinch hit HR by Michael Morse to tie this in the 8th inning. See here: Glorious Ending To A Great Series And then the Royals, to 7 games. Each team seeming to take the momentum, similar teams, and a well played series the way baseball should be played. It's rare with sport full of so many great athletes when you witness one player who is clearly playing better than anyone on the field and in this series, this was Madison Bumgarner. His performance will always be a point of reference for anyone who pitches in the World Series and then there is this article: Bum Horse This series was so close, it at times felt that the Giants could lose. After all the Royals played the game right and were fighters. We needed to know so after game 2, Oliver did the pop up test. That is, I threw a ball about as high as I could- if it was caught, the Giants would win this World Series. A nervous amount of time as the ball seemed to stay airborne for much too long ended up in our hands. To be sure we tossed a second ball, and if this was dropped, Royals would lose a close series. This ball met the hard pavement after a valiant effort by young Valiant. Well, you got to believe in something.! After Bumgarner, Jeremy Affeldt, Panda, Pence, the Giants won with defense and tremendous bullpen work (although Strickland gave up a record # of home runs). Nods to a great DP by Panik, Crawford and Belt in game 7.  I was nervous and without doubt, this would effect my year, my life and goodwill. That's not right but it's truthful. Because Dexter was working on the Wall at Sota, and Maria wanted to be around to pick him up, the only games we were able to enjoy together was the clincher vs. St. Louis (huddled around a radio) and game five v. the Royals (Bumgarner's complete game shut out). Oliver and I watched and listened (radio is about 5-10 seconds faster) with Maria before Ri took off to get Dext. Game 7 was incredibly tense. I promise to enjoy the game from more of a distance next year. However, what a great team and Thank you Giants!!
|
|---|
No comments:
Post a Comment