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With a Sweep, Giants Are Champions Again With a Sweep, Giants Are Champions Again
(about 1 hour later)
DETROIT — With bristly winds swirling and a World Series championship on the line, the San Francisco Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4-3, in 10 innings on Monday night in Game 4 to claim their second title in three years. DETROIT — Rain and bristly winds swirled. A hostile crowd grew feisty as the home team stirred to life. And still the San Francisco Giants remained calm. For all they had gone through in these last weeks, this was nothing.
The game, played before an announced crowd of 42,152 at Comerica Park, provided a dose of intensity and intrigue to a series that proved something of an anticlimax to an otherwise stunning postseason run for the Giants. During their two previous series, San Francisco had to overcome huge deficits and unlikely odds to keep their season alive. In the World Series, they were cutthroat and businesslike, finishing off the Tigers in the minimum four games, the first World Series sweep since the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in 2007. The Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4-3, over 10 tense and taut innings Sunday night to claim their second World Series title in three years. The game, played before an announced crowd of 42,152 at Comerica Park, provided a short dose of intensity to a series that felt like an anticlimax to the team’s otherwise stunning postseason run. After flirting dangerously close to elimination in their two previous series, the Giants were cutthroat and businesslike against the Tigers, finishing off them off in the minimum four games.
And now, this storied franchise, born in New York, packed and moved to California in 1958, has its seventh World Series title, and second since they upended the Texas Rangers in five games in 2010. And now, this storied franchise, born in New York, packed and moved to California in 1958, has its seventh World Series title, its second since upending the Texas Rangers in five games in 2010.
It was a cagey final confrontation, the 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. “To be world champions in two out the last three years, it’s amazing,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said. “Believe me, I know how hard it is to get here, and I couldn’t be prouder of a group of guys that were not going to be denied.”
The starting pitchers, the Giants’ Matt Cain and the Tigers’ Max Scherzer, battled a chilly, windy night and stood their ground, firing with what seemed to be less than their best. 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. Bochy, 57, a former catcher with a languid mien, will be further acknowledged as one of baseball’s elite tacticians. He pulled all of the necessary strings, mixing his players, keeping them afloat as they faced a two-games-to-none deficit in the Giants’ National League division series and a three-games-to-one disadvantage in the league championship series. The Giants won their last seven games of the year, a feat they never accomplished during the regular season.
Ryan Theriot singled off Phil Coke to start the 10th inning, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. One out later, Marco Scutaro, who had cooled this series after lighting up the N.L. Championship Series, punched a single into center field. The crowd gasped. After the game, Jim Leyland, the manager of the Tigers, was emphatic that the trophy was in the right hands.
Theriot raced around third and raised his arm in triumph as he slid safely across home plate. In the dugout, his teammates pummeled his helmet with their fists. The title felt within their grasp. “Obviously there was no doubt about it, they swept us,” Leyland said. “So there was certainly no bad breaks, no fluke. I tip my hat to them. Simple, they did better than we did.”
In the bottom of the inning, Sergio Romo, the Giants’ bearded and oft-animated closer, struck out the side, setting down triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera to seal a lasting image of the powerful Tigers’ sudden futility at the plate. Cabrera, a favorite for the American League Most Valuable Player award, struck out looking at an 89-mile-per-hour fastball, right down the middle of the plate. Leyland and his team were left without answers after falling flat when it counted most. Their performance will produce discordant echoes of their trip to 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.
Romo clenched his fists and pumped them in front of his chest. Soon, his teammates engulfed him. “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.”
For this must-win game, the Tigers handed the ball to Scherzer, who lasted six and a third innings, allowing three runs, seven hits, and one walk, while recording eight strikeouts. The Giants’ runs were built off two previously dormant bats. 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.
In the second inning, Brandon Belt, who was hitless during the first three games of the series, swiveled on an inside fastball and missed a home run by mere feet when the ball banged off the upper portion of the wall in right field. Belt scampered around the bases, settling for a triple, while Hunter Pence, who preceded him with a ground-rule double, scored easily. 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.
In the sixth inning, Buster Posey, who entered Game 4 batting .196 during the postseason with two extra-base hits, walloped a 82-m.p.h. changeup from Scherzer, sending the ball hooking inside the left-field foul pole for a two-run homer. The game turned, finally, in the 10th. Ryan Theriot led off with a single off Phil Coke and moved to second on a 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.
The action injected life into the frigid environs. Players and fans alike donned layers to battle the wind and bluster. The announcement over the public address system of the game time temperature, 44 degrees, incited a lusty cheer from the crowd. Shortly thereafter, a light, steady rain fluttered diagonally from left field, dampening but not dispiriting the crowd. “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.”
These conditions seemed to help the Tigers in the third. Cabrera came up with one on and two outs, and lofted a low changeup from Cain into the air to right field. He seemed not to have squared it up perfectly, but the ball carried and carried before plopping into the second row of seats beyond the right-field wall. The Tigers went up, 2-1, as their fans, wrapped in scarves and hooded sweatshirts, bounced in their seats. 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.
It was the first Tigers hit with a runner in scoring position since Game 1. It was the first time the Giants trailed a game since Game 4 of the championship series, and it broke a 20-inning scoreless streak by their pitchers. 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-mile-per-hour fastball, right down the middle of the plate.
After Posey’s home run in the sixth, Delmon Young retaliated for the Tigers in the bottom of the inning, lashing a hanging slider from Cain into the opposite-field seats for a line-drive, solo home run. Romo clenched his fists and pumped them in front of his chest. Seconds later, his teammates engulfed him.
Cain, as he did throughout the playoff run, soldiered through while appearing to lack his best stuff. He fired 102 pitches over seven strenuous innings, giving up three runs, five hits, and two walks while striking out five. “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.”
He left the mound with the game, the season, still hanging in the balance. But his teammates did the rest. Pitching a must-win game, Scherzer lasted six and a third 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-m.p.h. changeup, sending the ball hooking inside the left-field foul pole for a two-run homer.
“To get two in three years, it’s unbelievable,” said Posey, who was a rookie in 2010. “I think this time around, I appreciate it even more, because I understand the difficulty of doing it.”
Such action injected life into the frigid environs. Players and fans alike donned layers to battle the wind and bluster. The announcement over the public address system of the game-time temperature, 44 degrees, incited a lusty cheer from the crowd. Shortly thereafter, a light, steady rain fluttered diagonally from left field, dampening but not dispiriting the crowd.
These conditions seemed to help the Tigers in the third. Cabrera came up with one on and two outs, and lofted a low changeup from Cain into the air to right field. The ball carried and carried before splashing into the second row of seats in right field. The Tigers went up then, 2-1, as their fans, wrapped in scarves and hooded sweatshirts, bounced in their seats. It was the first time the Giants trailed a game since Game 4 of the championship series, and it broke a 20-inning scoreless streak by their pitchers.
After Posey’s home run in the sixth, Delmon Young retaliated for the Tigers in the bottom of the inning, lashing a hanging slider from Cain into the opposite-field seats for a line-drive, solo home run. But Cain, as he did throughout the playoff run, soldiered through while appearing to lack his best stuff. He fired 102 pitches over seven strenuous innings, giving up three runs, five hits and two walks while striking out five.
“A lot of these guys are loose and relaxed, and it just seemed like all the pieces fit together,” Cain said of the team.
Cain left the mound with the game, the season, still hanging in the balance. But his teammates did the rest, the pieces fitting into place one last time.