UPDATE, 11:15 p.m.: As delirious as the Polo Grounds was that day 63 years ago, Bobby Thomson ran mostly unmolested around the bases after he hit the Shot Heard Round the World.
Thomson was not tackled between second base and third by a lunatic starting pitcher from Alabama with terrible eyesight, as Travis Ishikawa was Thursday night when he hit the Blast that Rocked the Cove and sent the Giants to the 2014 World Series.
Ishikawa’s three-run homer in the ninth inning off Michael Wacha gave the Giants a 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and their third pennant in the past five seasons, making him the first Giant to send his team to the World Series with a game-ending home run since Thomson’s in 1951.
As the ball settled into the Arcade in right field, and the crowd of 43,217 at AT&T Park went apoplectic, a nearsighted Jake Peavy thought Ishikawa’s ball hit the bricks. Peavy leaped over the rail, shot past third-base coach Tim Flannery and started to tackle Ishikawa a few steps before the newest San Francisco postseason legend reached third base.
Ishikawa yelled at Peavy, “Move! I hit it out!”
Peavy said he looked around for teammates to hug and said, “Where’s everybody at? We’re going to the World Series, y’all.”
Indeed they are.
After winning the their sixth pennant in San Francisco and 20th in franchise history , they Giants will face the Kansas City Royals in the second all-wild-card World Series, starting Tuesday night.
The other was in 2002, when the Giants lost to the Angels in seven games.
“Wild” was the operative word for a warm night in which the Giants clinched the NL Championship Series four games to one, ousting the Cardinals in the NLCS for the third time since 2002.
Ishikawa, with a hit that will be live in San Francisco sports lore long after he hangs up his spikes, was the first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Opening Day and the Fresno Grizzlies in late July.
He would not have had the chance to play the part of Thomson had Michael Morse, owner of five at-bats and one broken-bat hit since he injured his left oblique Aug. 31, not tied the game with an eighth-inning solo home run against one of the toughest right-handed relievers in the game, Pat Neshek.
Also, Morse might not have hit the ball over the left-field fence, down the line, if not for a chance meeting in the clubhouse before the game with a guy who knows a little something about home runs: Barry Bonds.
“Barry came up to me and told me, ‘Get your foot down. You can’t hit if your foot’s in the air,’” Morse said. “I really thought about it. I went to the cage trying to get my foot down early.”
When the fateful slider arrived, Morse was ready, and AT&T Park went berserk, dugout included.
“Chaos. Anarchy. Loss of mind,” Pence said. “That’s what it was like.
Ishikawa might not have batted in a 3-3 game had Jeremy Affeldt, who wears a knee brace when he pitches, not grabbed pinch-hitter Oscar Taveres’ right-side chopper with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the ninth and run the ball to the bag, a little afraid to throw it, even more afraid he might not stay upright.
“That’s the fastest I’ve ever run,” Affeldt said. “I had visions of falling down, blowing out and landing about three inches short of the bag. I’m just happy I tagged the bag.”
Then, a Pablo Sandoval single and Brandon Belt walk set up the historic moment, the Giants’ third homer of the game after they had not gone deep in the series’ first four games.
Ishikawa, who made a defensive blunder that led to the first of three runs against Madison Bumgarner, built the count to 2-0 and knew Wacha had to throw a fastball. Wacha did, and Ishikawa swung his way into history.
Then, amnesia set in.
When Ishikawa’s ball went out, Pence said, “I don’t know if I can even remember those few second because I blacked out.”
So did Ishikawa. He said he remembered raising his hands when he knew he that the ball at least would hit the bricks, allowing pinch-runner Joaquin Arias to score the pennant-clinching run.
Ishikawa also remembered slapping hands with first-base coach Roberto Kelly, before raising his arms to the sides like airplane wings, a fitting sight for a man flying around the bases.
After that, Ishikawa largely went blank, not even reaizing it was Peavy violating the rules of baseball by running across the third-base line to intercept his home-run trot.
“I saw it go over the fence, and the next thing I remember is being thrown to the ground in a dogpile,” Ishikawa said. “I don’t remember anything else.”
There is plenty of video evidence for Ishikawa, his family and descendents to cherish throughout the generations.
They also can watch video of yet another Giants Champagne celebration, their ninth since this run of championship baseball began in 2010.
Ishikawa was on that title team. When asked to make a speech in the raucous clubhouse Thursday, with his teammates surrounding him, all he could do was yell the chant that the Giants unleashed in Philadelphia after winning that pennant.
“We’re going to the ‘ship! We’re going to the ‘ship.”
Because “championship” takes took long to say during a madcap celebration.
Pence took the floor, too. He always does, and once again the reverend roused his audience with words it was dying to hear.
“We ain’t done yet,” Pence yelled. “Saddle the hell up!”
ORIGINAL GAME STORY: The 2014 Giants fell out of first place with a tremendous early-summer thud. They fell out of the top wild-card spot with a tepid late summer. They kept tumbling until it was time to rise, dust themselves off and become the last National League club standing.
Mobbing was more like it, after the Giants captured their third pennant in five seasons in the most thrilling way possible Thursday night.
After Michael Morse so improbably tied Game 5 of the National League Championship Series with an eighth-inning homer off Pat Neshek, Travis Ishikawa hit a three-run homer off Michael Wacha with one out in the ninth for a 6-3 win that sent AT&T Park into a state of delirium, and the Giants to the World Series.
The Giants won their seventh pennant in San Francisco and 21st in franchise history with, of all things, the long ball.
They will face the Kansas City Royals in the first all-wild-card World Series since Giants-Angels in 2002. Game 1 is Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium, with Bumgarner able to pitch on regular rest and likely facing James Shields.
Since their 1987 loss to the Cardinals, the Giants have won four consecutive NLCS, the past three against St. Louis.
The 2014 resemblence to 2002 was eerie.
The Giants, playing against St. Louis in Game 5 at AT&T Park, trailed by a run going into the eighth inning before tying it, then walking off with the pennant on Kenny Lofton’s single in the ninth against Steve Kline.
In this game, Pablo Sandoval hit a leadoff single in the ninth against Wacha, making his first appearance of the postseason, an odd spot to make his debut, with St. Louis’ season on the line.
Hunter Pence tantalized the crowd with a flyball to right-center, but it was caught. But the Giants reclaimed momentum in the inning when Wacha walked Brandon Belt on four pitches.
Ishikawa then launched a 2-0 pitch into the history books, reaching the front of the arcade.
Ishikawa didn’t run around the bases. He flew, his arms spread like an airplane’s wings as he rounded first base.
The Giants, down 3-2 after eight solid innings from Madison Bumgarner, sent Morse to bat leading off the eighth against Pet Neshek, just into the game after seven superb innings from Adam Wainwright.
Morse, who had batted seven times since Aug. 31 without a hit, got a 1-1 fastball and slammed it over the fence down the left-field line. As the ball soared into the tunnel alongside the bleachers, Morse raised his hands and celebrated around the bases.
His first hit and RBI since Aug. 30, and first homer since Aug. 15, tied the game at 3-3, sparing Bumgarner a loss after he surrendered two solo homers in the fourth, by Matt Adams and Tony Cruz, to give the Cardinals their 3-2 lead.
Those homers had soured the same crowd that cheered the Giants’ first homer of the series, a bolt out of the blue from Joe Panik with Gregor Blanco aboard in the third.
Th0se were the only two runs against Wainwright in his seven innings.
Santiago Casilla took a 16-game postseaon scoreless streak to the mound and helped the Cardinals load the bases with two walks, one, to Tony Cruz, after the left side of the defense saved the a run.
Pablo Sandoval dived for a Kolton Wong grounder and tipped it toward Brandon Crawford, who grabbed the ball and fired a strong, off-balance throw to second for a force and the second out.
Manager Bruce Bochy turned to Jeremy Affeldt to escape the bases-loaded jam, and Affeldt complied. He fielded pinch-hitter Oscar Taveras right-side bouncer and dragged his gimpy all the way to first himself to send the game into the bottom of the ninth, still tied 3-3.
In the first inning Thursday, Bumgarner was in trouble. Jon Jay and Matt Holliday reached across the plate and hit opposite-field singles. Bumgarner responded by backing Jhonny Peralta off the plate with a fastball.
Bumgarner came inside again, and Peralta smoked the ball. But Pablo Sandoval leaped to catch it and fired to second to double off Jay to get the Giants off the field.
The Cardinals scored first when, for the first time, the Giants were bitten by having Ishikawa in left field.
With one out in the third, and Cruz and Matt Carpenter on base after walking, Ishikawa moved laterally when he should have retreated on Jay’s line drive. A last-second leap could not save Ishikawa.
The bail sailed over his head for a double and a 1-0 St. Louis lead. Just as significant, the Cardinals had two more runners in scoring position.
Then, Bumgarner threw up a stop sign, retiring Matt Holliday on a flyball too shallow for a sacrifice fly and Peralta on another flyball, which Ishikawa caught with ease.
Then, the unexpected.
With two outs in the bottom of the third, Blanco singled for the second time in three innings against Wainwright and Panik hit the Giants’ first homer since Brandon Belt won the 18-inning Division Series game in Washington.
When Panik returned to the dugout after reaching the Arczde, the Giants pounded him as hard as he pounded the ball.
Panik’s head might still have been ringing when the lead he provided disappeared on Adams’ homer in the fourth, which tied the game 2-2. Bumgarner had not allowed a home run to a lefty since the Rockies’ Carlos Gonzalez on April 11.
Then, a righty took him deep as well. Cruz found the left-field bleachers later in the inning to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. Like Panik, Cruz had one regular-season home run.
Sandoval’s leadoff double in the fourth, and a Hunter Pence walk, gave the Giants a tremendous opportunity to sock back, until the Cardinals finally got the kind of break that seemed to happen only on the other side in the series.
Belt lined out to second baseman Kolten Wong, who doubled off Sandoval.
From there, Wainwright got stronger and made a signfiicant statement in the sixth when he struck out Buster Posey, Sandoval and Pence in order.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said he did not plan to give the Cardinals a pep talk before the game.
Bochy said he had no plans either to remind his boys that the Giants won three in a row to take last year’s NLCS.
“Some things don’t need to be said,” Bochy said. “The last thing you want to do is put any negative thoughts in their minds. These guys are not going to drop their guard. They are going to leave it all out on the field.
‘You don’t want to put added pressure on them – ‘this could happen, that could happen.’ You go out ther eand pay. These guys will be ready.”
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