The San Francisco Giants ended their immaculate postseason run, in the same fashion they have all year.
Fight. The Giants knew how to fight more than any team in baseball this season and the final result was sweeping the Detroit Tigers to become World Series Champions.
The Giants did not hit a home run or anything crazy in the 10th inning to take the lead, they simply continued to play baseball the right way. Get on base, get him over, drive him in.
Playing baseball the right way won the Giants their second championship in the past three years. They dominated pitching in the World Series, they made clutch hits, played great small ball, and most of all they fought until the final out.
And how about that final out?
Sergio Romo had tossed un-hittable sliders all postseason, so he would stick with it against the most feared hitter in the world right? Wrong. Instead Romo decided to use a little of his inner craziness and freeze Miguel Cabrera with a fastball to seal the victory.
So, maybe this is the new revolution of how to build a championship team: Comprise a starting rotation so good that your two-time Cy Young award winner can dominate in the bullpen, your modern day Derek Jeter can anchor your team behind the plate, your GM can trade almost nothing for a player that ends up getting 14 hits in the NLCS and knocks in the game-winning hit to win the World Series and finally your favorite zoo animal that was too fat to play last time you were in the World Series can decide to hit .500 in the World Series with three home runs off the best pitcher in baseball.
Maybe this is not the new way to start a baseball team, but it sure did work for the Giants and teams may as well take notes.
Pablo Sandoval is a story for all baseball players. The Panda could not even crack the Giants World Series lineup in 2010. Never stop and continue on your mission. Baseball is a game of failure and when you receive a second opportunity, seize the moment.
Oh, and Sandoval sure did. The World Series MVP hit .500 (8 for 16) in the four game sweep and completely set the table with his three home run heroics in Game 1.
The Giants deserved to win this series. No, not in another torturing fashion, but in a dominating way. Of course, when their backs were put to the wall, they prevailed once again.
This championship was a team effort. The Giants rallied on a simple team effort, “25 guys, one common goal, win today.” No other saying or anything else could sum up the Giants better.
The Tigers came into this series as heavy favorites after sweeping the New York Yankees. Unfortunately for them, the Giants heart outweighed the Tigers strengths. The Giants were a deeper team, played sound baseball and their toughness outweighs any Triple Crown.
October is full of the unexpected, the unknown and the mysterious. The orange and black of San Francisco signified the insanity of October and took it by storm. The Giants took the World Series out of the hands of Detroit as fast as they could and completely deserved to be the champions of baseball in 2012.
Sandoval summed-up the Giants perfectly: “We play with heart. We got a lot of faith and we never give up.”
Notes:
* Pablo Sandoval became the fourth player in World Series history to hit three home runs in a game (Babe Ruth twice, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols werre the others). He also became the only player in World Series history to hit a HR in his first three WS plate appearances.
* The only other players to hit .500 in a World Series besides Sandoval were: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig twice and Hideki Matsui.
* Sergio Romo did not allow a hit after Game 5 of the NLCS
* Out of the bullpen this postseason, Tim Lincecum threw 13 IP, gave up 3 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 17 strikeouts and had a 0.69 ERA.
* The Giants became the first team to win an NLCS in seven games and then sweep a World Series.
* Giants pitchers held the Tigers to a .159 batting average (The third lowest ever in a World Series).
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