Giants to face Tigers in Fall Classic
San Francisco completes comeback from 3-1 deficit
Jorge L. Ortiz SAN FRANCIS CO In a franchise history that dates to their New York days in the late 1800s, the Giants never had prevailed in a winner-take-all Game 7.
The San Francisco branch has added that item to the résumé.
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 against the St. Louis Cardinals in the decisive game of the National League Championship Series. The game ended in a driving rain. 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.
“It’s a lot of want, a lot of willpower, guys actually believing it could happen,” Giants catcher Buster Posey said.
San Francisco will host the Detroit Tigers in the first two games of the World Series beginning Wednesday. The NL got home-field advantage with a victory in the All- Star Game, where three Giants were major con- tributors. Monday’s winning pitcher, Matt Cain, was one of them.
Cain said defense was the difference.
“It was huge,” Cain said. “That’s what made this series, as guys made big defensive plays. And tonight was really, really big. (Marco) Scutaro made some great plays at second.”
The Giants franchise came in with a 0-5 record in deciding games in bestof-seven postseason series, the worst in major league history. The previous time they had hosted such a game, Oct. 16, 1962, they lost 1-0 to the New York Yankees.
But from early on Monday, 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.
Series MVP Scutaro, who batted .500 with four RBI, got it started with the second of his three singles. No. 5 hitter Hunter Pence, who came in with one RBI in the playoffs, drove in two with a bases-loaded double that stretched the lead to 5-0.
St. Louis, denied a chance to defend its World Series title, is the 34th team to go up 3-1 in an LCS and the seventh to lose the lead. The Cardinals scored one run in the final three games.