Did anybody really expect the the Giants to win the pennant?
The San Francisco Giants have stolen the National League pennant, yet another year. Following a game one surprise road win against the Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals, the Giants would split the opening series over the weekend. However, the last 3 days have been the worst for Cardinals fans have endured in quite some time, dropping consecutive road losses to their National League foes.
Game 3 saw a walk-off error, where St. Louis had momentum to push the game into extra innings and the following outing on Wednesday night would see Marco Gonzales getting lit up for three runs in the 6th inning. Wainwright assumed the pitcher’s mound, with hopes of extending the series back home and only gave up four hits through 7 innings pitched. The Cards were first on the board in the 2nd inning with a Jon Jay double to deep left bringing in Matt Carpenter. Unfortunately, the bottom half of the inning was the first time San Francisco would get on the board, with Joe Panik homering to bring in Gregor Blanco for a 2-1 lead.
Matt Adams and Tony Cruz would soon hit consecutive homers to give the Cards a 3-2 edge at the top half of the 4th. Both teams would obtain stressful jams through the next three innings, with the Giants tying the game during the bottom of the 8th on a remarkable pinch-hit homerun by Michael Morse. With the momentum on their sides, the AT&T Park knew their home team would have them celebrating this weekend.
The final inning of the game began with a Pablo Sandoval single to right, followed immediately by a Brandon Belt walk. With men on first and second, Travis Ishikawa was up for the pressure and would blast a three-run homer to deep right ending the NLCS and advancing his team to the World Series. San Francisco now wins their third pennant in the last 5 years and have a chance to solidify themselves as legitimate dynasty under skipper Bruce Bochy. Their opponents won’t be an easy task, as the Kansas City Royals have went undefeated in the post-season shutting out the Los Angles Angels and Baltimore Orioles in sweep fashion.
The Giants hold experience, but Kansas City’s defensive play and arguably the best relief line-up in all of baseball might have some thinking an upset is imminent. San Francisco’s known for rallying to win late games seen in previous outings and years, but will need that trend to continue if they want any shot at the young Royals.
Game one of the World Series is this Tuesday, October 21st at 8:07pm ET on FOX.