San Francisco Giants Advance To World Series

22 Oct, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO – In a franchise history that dates back to their New York days in the late 1800s, the Giants had never prevailed in a winner-take-all Game 7. The San Francisco branch has now added that item to the resume.

Two years after winning their first World Series since moving to San Francisco in 1958, the Giants earned a return trip Monday with a 9-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the decisive game of the National League Championship Series.

It was the sixth consecutive victory in an elimination game this postseason for the Giants, who were down 2-0 in the Division Series and 3-1 in St. Louis as recently as Thursday.

San Francisco will host the Detroit Tigers in the first two games of the World Series beginning Wednesday. The NL got homefield advantage with a victory in the All-Star Game, where three Giants were major contributions. Monday’s winning pitcher, Matt Cain, was one of them.

The Giants franchise came in with an 0-5 record in deciding games in best-of-seven postseason series, the worst in major league history. The last time they had hosted such a game, Oct. 16, 1962, they lost 1-0 to the New York Yankees.

But from early on in the game, there was little doubt about the outcome of this game. San Francisco busted it open with a five-run third, the fifth time in the NLCS it scored at least four times in an inning.

Marco Scutaro, who batted .500 with four RBI, got it started with the second of his three singles. Fifth-place hitter Hunter Pence, who had one RBI in the playoffs, drove in two with a bases-loaded double that stretched the lead to 5-0.

The Cardinals, denied a chance to defend their World Series title, became the 34th team to go up 3-1 in an LCS and just the seventh to squander the lead. Going back to last year, they had recorded six consecutive wins in elimination games, but scored just once in the final three of this NLCS.

St. Louis had made a habit of pulling off miraculous comebacks in must-win games. In both Game 6 of last year’s World Series and in Game 5 of this year’s Division Series, the Cardinals were down to their last strike twice before surging back to prevail.

This time the deficit was too large – 7-0 after three innings – and the opponent too inspired.

USA Today

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