DETROIT ? The first one was a function of time and place.
It was serendipity. It was the race car assembled from junked
parts, all pixie dust and charged particles, and a ?why not? arrogance from a
frat-house group of players who mixed toughness with tenacious pitching to crash a World Series gala.
This was different Sunday night. The Giants? second
championship in three years, which they clinched in a 4-3, 10-inning victory
at Comerica Park that finished a four-game sweep over the Detroit Tigers, was not ad-libbed.
This was by design.
[BAGGS' INSTANT REPLAY: Giants are World Series champions]
This
was a team that featured
smooth infield defense and swooping birds in the outfield, a team that
traded
home run trots for frenetic doubles and triples, a team of tough,
contact-oriented hitters who stayed in the middle of the field with two
outs
and got the runner home from third base with less than that, a bullpen that
refused to be broken and a talented rotation that shuffled itself from
the discard pile and came up aces when it mattered most.
This was the team that GM Brian Sabean always talked about
creating during all those years in the Barry Bonds era, and the rough
transition that followed. This was the team he craved: one that was younger, more athletic,
ran the bases with aplomb, created their own breaks and didn?t give away extra
outs.
And hey, it didn?t hurt to have Buster Posey back, either.
Just two years after winning the first World Series in the
Giants? five-plus decades in San Francisco, they?ve done it again. And there is
a feeling this time that they weren?t lucky.
They were just that good.
?I didn?t have to wait 50 years for the next one!? said
clubhouse manager Mike Murphy, beaming as he shuffled through a raucous
celebration holding a half-dozen drained champagne bottles under his arms.
There?s going to be another parade down Market St. on
Wednesday, and do you remember the signature moment from the million-fan march
in 2010? It was Posey, the fresh-faced rookie, interrupting the revelry with a
moment of stone-cold sobriety. He slapped the podium and rattled the microphone
in front of City Hall, saying, ?Let?s do this again next year.?
The Giants did not defend their title in 2011. Their follow-up
season got taken out at the legs when Posey went down in that vicious home
plate collision with the Florida Marlins? Scott Cousins.
But it was apparent just a few weeks into this spring training
that Posey could bear all the weight the Giants needed of him. He has a batting
title and and should clear a spot for an NL MVP trophy in a couple weeks, too.
And he?ll get a second ring.
?Well, we thought that time and place could be last year,
too, and it went up in smoke,? Giants GM Brian Sabean said. ?Maybe that makes
winning this year sweeter after the fact. You know, it?s like life. It?s fast
and slow at the same time.
?And I tell you what, nobody?s talking about how Buster put
down all the right signs. He?s an offensive player and a batting champion and
the MVP, but for this young man to do what he?s done as a catcher is just
amazing. He?s the rare offensive catcher who has a flair for the dramatic that
you just don?t see.?
Posey even showed a spark of emotion after his two-run home run gave the Giants a momentary, 3-2 lead in the sixth inning. He raised an index finger through the drizzle and admitted he got so caught up in the moment that he nearly missed first base.
?I found it in time,? said Posey, who had a knack for doing
that all season.
These Giants did everything right on time, and their
midseason additions ? Marco Scutaro and Hunter Pence ? did more than blend into
the fabric of the team. They became vocal leaders and firebrand speakers who
set a professional tone.
There was no better statement for what made this team successful than the manner in which they scored the series-winning run in the 10th inning. Unlikely DH Ryan Theriot, who had? lost his second base job in August, punched a single. And the man who took it, Scutaro, flared a single to right-center field to send his teammate sliding across the plate amid a thick dust cloud.
"That's about perfect, the way it happened, isn't it?" Theriot said.
?The terms ?teamwork? and ?team play? and ?play as a team? are used loosely, but these guys truly did,? Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. ?They set aside their own agenda and asked what?s best for the club. We put guys in different roles and nobody said a word, complained or anything, and that?s the only way it?s going to get done. It shows the character in that clubhouse and how they kept fighting, saying, hey, we?re not going home.?
Bochy looked as if the blood drained from his head when told
he became the first Giants manager to win two World Series titles since John
McGraw, back in 1905 and 1921-22.
?Nawww,? Bochy said, pausing an instant as a wave of emotion
hit him.
Then he snapped back into wry form.
[RATTO: Giants are the new platinum standard of modern baseball]
?C?mon,? he said, suddenly breaking into a grin. ?Pick it
up, John!?
So many observers saw Bochy as a retread hire when Sabean
hired him to replace Felipe Alou prior to the 2007 season, when the final score
was a sideshow and all eyes were following Barry Bonds and a home run record
nobody east of Manteca wanted him to break.
Sabean did not feel
that way about Bochy six years ago. And now, he looks back and
recognizes the moment: Hiring him away from the unappreciative San Diego
Padres
was the best decision he?s made in his 16-year tenure.
?He?s a Hall of Fame manager, enough said,? Sabean said. ?Understated, maybe. Undervalued, definitely. You look now at what he?s done, and this is a just, just reward for someone who is a lifelong baseball name and a great person.?
Bochy and Sabean shared a vision for what a winning team
needed to look like to thrive in their unique waterfront park, and within their
division. It took hitters who could adapt and make use of the gaps, and refrain
from throwing up their arms when the wind through the archways knocked down
drives to right field or 400-foot outs settled into gloves on the warning track
in center.
The Giants hit the fewest home runs in the major leagues
this season, a function of the meager 31 they managed in 81 home games. But unlike past teams, this one used
the park as an advantage, not an excuse that lodged in their brains. And they
ran down all of their opponents? deep drives, too.
?Getting Blanco, Pagan and Pence, they cover so much ground
in the outfield,? Bochy said. ?When pitching is your strength, you want a good
defense. That shows up every day. Hitting comes and goes. But as long as you
stay in more games, you have a better chance of winning them, and that?s how we
play.?
This roster, this playoff run ? it was a coordinated effort, wasn?t it?
?I guess,? said right-hander Matt Cain, as champagne dripped
from his ski goggles. ?If coordinated means getting down 2-0 and 3-1 in the
first two series.?
Ah yes. The first two series. Six games that
could have ended their season. Six fiery hoops they flung themselves
through to reach the World Series.
Not only did the Giants need to win all three games in
Cincinnati to get past the NL Division Series, but they faced a Game 3 starter,
Homer Bailey, who held them to one hit and struck out 10.
Yet they managed to win that game 2-1 in 10 innings only because Ryan Vogelsong absolutely refused to let them lose as long as he was on the mound, and because Reds third baseman Scott Rolen, an eight-time Gold Glove award winner, made an error that led to the tiebreaking run.
OK, maybe there was a dash of serendipity in this run after all.
But mostly, those survival rounds were about their starting
pitchers, who had tripped so many silent alarms with the way they struggled
down the stretch. As it turned out, Vogelsong morphed into the best postseason pitcher since
Orel Hershiser, Barry Zito pitched the game of his life in St. Louis to bring the
NLCS back to AT&T Park for the final two games, Cain started and won a pair
of winner-take-all affairs and even sleepy-armed Madison Bumgarner recovered from a banishment
to spin seven shutout innings of two-hit ball in Game 2 against the Tigers.
Each of the pitchers had their hero turn. Each had their
moment of inspiration when they grabbed their teammates and pushed them out of the
path of an oncoming train. They survived because none of them got their foot
caught in the rails.
The Giants won their last seven games. They didn?t have a
seven-game winning streak once during the regular season.
And they have won a stunning eight of nine games over their last two World Series, shutting down offensive stars like Josh Hamilton (2 for 21 two seasons ago) and Prince Fielder (1 for 14 this year). It?s a credit to their pitchers for executing the game plan, their catcher, Posey, for fashioning it and their advance scouts for providing the information on which to base it all.
?This is something we?re very proud of,? said Sabean,
crediting Steve Balboni and Keith Champion, with another nod to scout and
former catcher Brian Johnson, who lives in the Detroit area and saw the Tigers
at least 60 times this season.
?We put a premium on it. These are two very good teams we?ve
beaten, Texas and Detroit, and we?ve only lost one game. So the advance reports
have to be good. But you have to execute, too.
"Pitching is
going to be our celebrity, and that mantra isn?t going to change. It?s not the
all-eggs-in-one-basket with one player approach. This is conducive to our
ballpark and our division.?
Said Posey: ?I think it?s quality pitchers making quality
pitches,? Posey said. ?It?s as simple as that.?
Tim Lincecum had to remind himself that he was a quality pitcher, too. After a season of personal misery, he accepted a bullpen role and did more than go through the motions. He established himself as a prime weapon, giving up just one run on three hits while striking out 17 in 13 relief innings.
He hardened up one of the team?s soft spots, as everyone in
the bullpen had to pitch an inning later to make up for the loss of Brian
Wilson in April.
The toughest part about replacing Wilson? Finding someone
with the stones to throw that final pitch in the ninth inning.
They discovered they had someone with a heart big enough for
the job in Sergio Romo, a former slider specialist who only faced right-handers
because his elbow was too tender, his durability was an issue and he didn?t
have the stuff to get lefties out.
[RELATED: Romo, bullpen mates rise to the challenge]
But Romo worked and worked on his two-seam fastball. And
with the Giants one out away from mobbing the field Sunday night, Romo did not recoil when
he had to go through Miguel Cabrera ? the first hitter in 45 years to win a
Triple Crown.
Romo got ahead with sliders. Posey called for another with
two strikes.
?Romo shook to the fastball,? Posey said. ?He gets all the credit on that. It?s extremely gutsy. It just shows the makeup he has. There?s no fear out there.?
Posey didn?t give any thought to a mound visit.
?No because he has a feel for the situation and what?s going
on,? Posey said. ?It?s not something you can learn. It?s just something you
have.?
Said Bochy: ?That at-bat, he just knew that Cabrera was
looking for a slider, and he commands his fastball so well and he located it.
It?s just amazing the job he?s done in these situations we?ve put him in. We
had the right guy and I couldn?t be prouder of Sergio, how he?s emerged as such
a great closer.?
A Triple Crown winner flinched as the 88-mph pitch dropped
underneath his hands, plate umpire Brian O?Nora pumped his arm and Romo danced
into Posey?s arms as the Giants leapt into the 43-degree night and found so
much comfort in their own company.
Two years ago, they were the Band of Misfits. Now they are simply
Banded Together.
?I?ve never been around a team that bonded the way this one
did,? said Vogelsong, who spent so much emotion on the mound.
?World Series champions? Yeah, I like the sound of that.
It?s too new. I can?t call it anything but a dream come true, and I know that?s
a clich? that people say. But that?s what it is. This is the moment I?ve always
dreamed of.?
And how does it feel?
?Better than I ever could have thought, just because of the
people on this team,? he said. ?We are a family in here. These players go out
there for what?s on the front of their shirts and not on the back. It?s about
the Giants.
?We did this as Giants.?
They inspired themselves to survive, as Pence often put it, just so they could spend tomorrow with each other.
What does tomorrow hold now?
?Go back to San Francisco, prepare for the parade,? said
Pence, his eyes wide, ?and celebrate!?
Source: http://www.csnbayarea.com/10/29/12/These-World-Series-champion-Giants-weren/nbcsportsgiants.html?blockID=794785&feedID=2796
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