N.Y. Giants survive late Cowboys scare
ARLINGTON — (AP) — Lawrence Tynes kicked two of his five field goals in the fourth quarter and Eli Manning and the New York Giants remained undefeated at Cowboys Stadium with a 29-24 win against the Dallas Cowboys, after blowing a 23-point lead.
The Giants overcame a fourthquarter deficit to win for the 20th time in Manning’s career. None were quite like this one.
New York (6-2) led 23-0 just 2 minutes into the second quarter when defensive end Jason PierrePaul returned an interception 28 yards for a touchdown. That was the third interception thrown by Tony Romo, among six turnovers by Dallas (3-4).
The NFC East-leading Giants didn’t score again until Tynes kicked a 43-yard field goal with 10:20 left for a 26-24 lead. He added a 37-yarder after Stevie Brown recovered a fumble.
Dallas celebrated what seemed to be a 37-yard touchdown catch by Dez Bryant with 10 seconds left. But the play was reviewed, showing that Bryant’s hand touched out of bounds first.
14:
BRONCOS
34, SAINTS
Peyton Manning shook off a
the World Series in 2006, when they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in five games. After beating the Yankees in four games the previous round, the Tigers became the third team to sweep the championship series before being swept in the World Series.
“There were a lot of beautiful things that happened this season,” said Prince Fielder, who went 1 for 14 during the sweep, “and unfortunately we have to end it with a loss in the World Series.”
It was a cagey confrontation, the final game, with runs appearing in sporadic bursts, all momentum undercut with swift counterpunching. The Giants jumped ahead in the second inning, but were leapfrogged by the Tigers in the third. The Giants barreled in front again during the sixth, but the Tigers tied them up in the bottom of the frame.
The starting pitchers, the Giants’ Matt Cain and the Tigers’ Max Scherzer, battled a chilly, windy night and stood their ground. They left the game at an impasse, but after the mound was bequeathed to the bullpens, the relief pitchers refused to bend either, sending the game into extra innings.
The game turned, finally, in the 10th. Ryan Theriot led off with a single off Phil Coke and moved to second on a
AMERICAN CONFERENCE sacrifice bunt. One out later, Marco Scutaro, who finished the postseason with 21 hits, looped a ball into center field. The crowd gasped as it fell for a single. “When I saw it, I said: ‘Please, get down. Don’t stay up,’ ” Scutaro said of his hit. “When I saw it drop, it was, ‘Oh my God.’ What a feeling.”
As the ball plopped into the outfield, Theriot raced around third and then raised his arm in triumph as he slid across home plate. In the dugout, his teammates pummeled his helmet with their fists. The title felt in their grasp. Then one final image of the powerful Tigers’ sudden futility at the plate was sealed in the bottom of the inning, when Sergio Romo, the Giants’ bearded closer, struck out the side. For the last out, he set down Miguel Cabrera, winner of the league triple crown, catching him looking at an 89-mph fastball, right down the middle of the plate.
Romo clenched his fists and pumped them in front of his chest. Seconds later, his teammates engulfed him.
“It was a great season for all of us,” said Cabrera, who was looking for a slider. “But we feel down, we feel sorry, because we couldn’t get it done in the last series, the World Series.”
Pitching a must-win game, Scherzer lasted 61/ innings, allowing three runs, seven hits and one walk while recording eight strikeouts.
The Giants’ runs against him were built from two previously dormant bats. In the second, Brandon Belt, who was hitless during the first three games of the series, swiveled on an inside fastball to crush a run-scoring triple off the right-field wall. In the sixth, Buster Posey, who entered Game 4 batting .196 during the postseason with two extra-base hits, walloped a 82-mph changeup, sending the ball hooking inside the left-field foul pole for a tworun homer. Motors could disassemble the Corvette and spread it around. Or simply make multiple sets of keys.
“I could use another car,” said Ryan Theriot, who singled and scored the winning run in his first career appearance as a designated hitter. “That’s the last thing Pablo needs.”
So who else? Start with Tim Lincecum, the starter turned reliever who did not allow a hit in 42/ innings in Games 1 and 3, striking out eight of the 16 batters he faced.
Or Sergio Romo, who struck out the side in the 10th for his third save of the series. Romo is one of six players with three saves in a World Series, one short of John Wetteland’s record four for the Yankees in 1996. Romo ably replaced the injured Brian Wilson.
Catcher Buster Posey handled the Giants’ pitching staff masterfully, had hits in three of four games (.286) and contributed a two-run homer Sunday to give San Francisco a short-lived lead. “As important as his at-bat was, is what he did behind the plate in the postseason to help get this pitching on track,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
Marco Scutaro, the MVP of the National League Championship Series, had three runs batted in in the World Series and singled in the winning run Sunday. How about him?
Or even Madison Bumgarner, the Game 2 winner whose seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts sent the Tigers on a 20-inning spiral of run-scoring futility that did not end until Miguel Cabrera’s tworun homer in the third inning Sunday.
“I hate to leave anybody out,” Bochy said as he ticked off a bunch of names. “But it seemed like it was somebody different to contribute to every series, or every game.”
For the five voters entrusted with choosing the series MVP, including representatives of ESPN, Fox Sports and the Baseball Writers Association of America, the biggest name was Sandoval’s. His three homers in Game 1, the first two off the Tigers’ ace, Justin Verlander, matched the record-setting performances of Babe Ruth (twice), Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols.
“I still can’t believe that game,” Sandoval said. “It’s the game of your dreams.”