By Lilia Quevedo, Staff writer
The World Series. One of the biggest events in the United States, in which two baseball teams from opposite leagues compete for a trophy made of silver, and rings emblazoned with diamonds. To get there, each team must play over 100 games and win the most out of their division. If they don’t make it, there’s always next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. Most of the time the winners are your A-class teams, like the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. Every now and then, however, the underdog comes out on top.
The San Francisco Giants have beat all odds once again, going to the playoffs for the third time in five years. They won the World Series for the first time in 52 years in 2010, shocking every announcer, non-believer, and especially the anti-Giants announcer Joe Buck. They did it again in 2012, sweeping the Tigers in the World Series. The Giants started off great this year, but after a mishap by Romo, the team just went downhill. All hope was almost lost, but then came September. They stepped up their game and won the Wild Card for the National League against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The first playoffs opponent for the Giants: the Washington Nationals. Game 1 was on October 3, and it was an exciting one. The first game of playoffs is always a crucial one. The pitchers were Peavy for the Giants and Stratsburg for the Nationals. The game started off slow until the Giants scored one run in both the 3rd, 4th, and 7th innings. All seemed well, until Peavy allowed two runs with two outs in the seventh inning. Thankfully, he was able to end the two-out rally and the Giants relievers and closer Casilla were able to win the game with a score of 3-2.
Game 2 was not for the weak of heart. In the second inning, the pitcher Hudson allowed the Nationals to score one run.The Giants played eight scoreless, hopeless innings. It was the ninth inning when the miracle happened. All of the Nationals fans were standing up, thinking their team was going to win. Then the National’s closer, Zimmermann, walked 2nd baseman Joe Panik. There were already two outs so everyone still figured the Nationals would end the game cleanly. But catcher Buster Posey had other plans, and he singled, advancing Panik to second base. The two-out rally would not be ended, because at that point 3rd baseman Pablo Sandoval hit a double and Panik scored, tying the game 1-1. Buster Posey decided to take a risk, and ran all the way from first to home plate, but the umpire called him out. Had he been called safe, the game would not have gone to the 10th inning. Or the 11th. Or to the 18th. But it did, and after 18 heart-stopping, nail-biting innings, the Giants first baseman Brandon Belt grabbed yet another win for the Giants with a home run, ending the game at 2-1 and breaking the record for most extra innings in a playoff game.
The third game was in San Francisco and it was the last game the Giants needed to win to clinch the NLDS. The game started with an inspiring speech by WWE star Daniel Bryan, ending the speech with Hunter Pence’s “Yes! Yes! Yes!” back from 2012. Neither team scored for six innings. It looked like the game was going to go extra innings when the Giant’s pitcher Madison Bumgarner made a big mistake. He tried to throw a sacrifice bunt to third but the throw was wild, causing Sandoval to miss the ball and allow two runs to score. The Nationals added two more runs after that, and the Giants almost rallied in the 9th, but Washington won the game 4-1.
On Tuesday, the Giants did it. They scored two runs in the 2nd inning. In the 7th, the Nationals tied it up. The Giants would not lose this game. It was their home field and all of their fans were waving their orange flags. With one out in the 7th inning, Joe Panik singled on a line drive to left field. Buster Posey singled to center field, advancing Panik to 3rd. All the pressure was on the Nationals pitcher Aaron Barrett. He pitched and walked Hunter Pence. The bases were loaded with only one out, and one of the Giant’s biggest hitters was at bat. Barrett threw the ball..and the pitch was wild. Panik stole home, giving the Giants a 3-2 lead. That run was all the Giants needed, because their outstanding pitching staff managed to prevent the Nationals from scoring the rest of the game. Signed baseballs were given away, players high-fived fans, and there was a huge celebration in the dugout.
The Giants next stop was St. Louis. After four nerve-wracking games against the Nationals, the Giants made it to the NLCS. For the St. Louis Cardinals, they had an easy-breezy time thanks to a not-so-good postseason pitcher Kershaw and a consistent pattern of nearly always hitting in runs in the 7th inning. For the second time in five seasons, these two teams must compete against each other to earn a spot in the World Series.
Game 1’s winner could be determined early in the game. Pitcher Madison Bumgarner for the Giants dominated for 7 ⅔ innings, not allowing a single run. Their three-run-lead they earned from the second and third innings gave room for their closer Casilla to end the game smoothly, allowing the Giants to take a 1-0 lead in the NLCS.
In Game 2, both teams had to work hard to score a single run. The Giants’ pitcher Jake Peavy allowed only two runs, but was replaced by Jeremy Affeldt in the 5th inning. So was the Cardinals’ pitcher Lance Lynn. When it was the top of the 9th inning, the Giants tied the game due to a wild pitch by Trevor Rosenthal which allowed Pinch-runner Matt Duffy to score. The Giants’ hope of winning, however, was crushed when Kelton Wong of the Cardinals hit a walk-off homerun off of the closer Sergio Romo. The series was tied 1-1.
The one loss did not diminish the Giants’ spirit. The player’s determination enabled them to win three straight games at home. Game 3 was won by the Giants in the 10th inning due to an extraordinary sacrifice bunt by Gregor Blanco and a bad throw by Cards reliever Randy Choate. Game 4 was won smoothly with no extra innings and a final score of 6-4. Finally, in Game 5, left-fielder Travis Ishikawa showed the Giants we wasn’t going to retire any time soon. The game was tied 3-3 in the 9th inning when he hit a walk-off homerun, clinching the win for the Giants. He was the first Giants player to do that in a postseason game in the past 40 years.
Now it was time for the Giants to go to the World Series. They had gotten this far, and they wouldn’t stop fighting until they won.