Giants Rout Cardinals in Game Seven
A torrential downpour that suddenly started in the ninth inning wasn’t about to spoil the moment for the Giants and them’s veterans, who were about to see their World Series dreams come true.
“The rain never felt so good,” NLCS MVP Marco Scutaro said in an ESPN.com article. “We’re going to the World Series, this is unbelievable.”
It was a special night for the SF fans
Even after falling behind 3-1 in the series, the Giants never gave up and it resulted in a magical game seven home win; a 9-0 celebration over the St. Louis Cardinals and a second trip to the World Series in three years for many of the team’s players.
“These guys never quit,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “They just kept believing and they got it done.”
A strong performance from starter Matt Cain and an offensive outburst fueled the game seven win, which was the team’s record-tying sixth consecutive elimination game victory.
Long-time journeyman, Scutaro, posted his sixth multi-hit game of the series and tied an LCS record with 14 hits in all seven games. Hunter Pence busted the gates wide open with a side-winding double in the third innings, which ended up scoring three runners and made the game 5-0 at that point. St. Louis shortstop Pete Kozma was fooled by the bounce as the ball got through the infield.
Scutaro was named NLCS MVP and will be making his first-ever trip to the World Series
“It was going to go in the hole and it ended up going up the middle” Kozma said.
Cardinals players were also fooled by Cain, who pitched five and two-thirds innings of shutout baseball with four strikeouts and only one walk. Four relievers, including including bearded closer, Sergio Romo, then closed things out in the rain.
Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse, on the other hand, couldn’t get out of the third inning, giving up five earned runs on six hits. He won the matchup against Cain in game three, but had no such luck against the determined Giants in the decisive game.
After rallying to defeat both the Reds and now the Cardinals, the Giants will move on to face the Detroit Tigers, who are coming off a most impressive sweep of the mighty New York Yankees. Game one will see Justin Verlander take on Barry Zito in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Verlander was dominant against the Yankees, closing the door on the Bronx Bombers in game four by pitching eight and a third innings while only giving up three hits and one earned run.
Barry Zito is what he described as a career-high in a elimination staving game in game five of the NLCS, in which he shutout the Cardinals through seven and two-thirds innings.
Both teams are certainly on a roll and it’s hard to go against the feel-good Giants, but Verlander’s 0.74 October era is just too much to ignore. The fact that he shut down the A’s and the Yankees leads me to believe that he will do it to the Giants too. Look for the Tigers to take game one of the World Series and most likely the whole thing, but of course, we will see how things play out and if SF has any more magic stored up.
