Never-say-die Giants show Cards something

It’s good to be wrong when it comes to sports. After predicting the Giants would be done twice in their playoff series against the Reds and Cardinals, they managed to win both series. The Giants found a way to overcome a 3-1 series deficit against the Cardinals, and it helped them advance to the World Series after a 9-0 victory last night over last year’s defending World Series champions at AT&T Park. This Giants team is amazing. For them to win seven straight elimination games, it speaks well about the character of that baseball team.  They are a team that does not know when to quit. They do well when they are in dire straits. This is a team that wins with grit, guts and guile. It’s something sabermetricans can’t deny. Beating the Reds and Cardinals were tough. Those two are great teams that had a good chance of winning a championship. They could have finished the Giants off. This was more about what the Giants did than what the Reds and Cardinals did when one analyzes the first two playoff rounds in the National League. The Giants found a way to pitch well and get timely hits at the right time. They found a way to create a big inning to help them win their seven straight elimination games. This team figured it out at the right time. It was one thing to win Game 5. Any team can win a game with a 3-1 deficit. It’s about how a team can complete the comeback. Go ahead and talk about home-field advantage with the Giants playing the last two playoff games at AT&T Park, but that can be overrated. In the playoffs, teams can win playoff games on the road. This Cardinals team proved that by winning Game 5 of the Division Series against the Nationals. They won Game 7 of the NLCS at New York in 2006. If they can win at New York and Washington D.C., they can certainly do it in San Francisco. The Cardinals were good enough to win one last game in San Francisco to advance. The Giants know all too well how good they are. But make no mistake. The Cardinals found out how good the Giants are in the NLCS. Not only it takes a special team to beat the defending champs, but to do this from a 3-1 deficit is something else. In winning Game 6 and 7, the Giants feed off the home crowd by getting off to a good start by taking an early lead and they never relinquished it. The AT&T Park soldout crowd was ready to party in the second inning when the Giants took a 2-0 lead in the second inning after Matt Cain’s base hit drove in Gregor Blanco. The fans knew the Giants were not going to blow that lead with Cain on the mound. They figured he wasn’t going to blow it with everything on the line. Everything went right early on for the Giants as they made defensive plays to rob the Cardinals off base hits. They had the early lead, and Cain was overpowering on the mound. When the Giants scored five runs in the third inning to take a 7-0 lead, it was game over. The Cardinals knew it. As good as they were, they didn’t have it in them to make a comeback. They were too shellshocked to make it happen. For good measure, Cain plunked Holiday in the sixth inning, and that got the fans delirous. It had to happen after the Cardinals outfielder injured Marco Scutaro with that slide in Game 2 whether it was intentional or not. The Giants starter had to protect his teammate for what this Cardinal did. That’s what being a good teammate is about. The crowd started celebrating as the game went on. They knew this was going to be their night. Nothing was going to stop their team. Even Brian Wilson got into the act in the Giants dugout as he was motioning the fans throughout the game. Fox couldn’t help themselves when they took camera shots of him. When the game was over, it was pandemonium inside and outside the stadium. Who knows how long it lasted? It could have been the entire night. In some ways, last night may have been bigger than the World Series celebration couple of years ago based on how this team dig deep to make a comeback against a great team. It was not only a celebration of what this Giants team accomplished, but it was an appreciation of how good this franchise is in the last few years. This is a golden era for the Giants. It’s hard to win postseason games as the Yankees can attest. It takes a special team to advance each round. The Giants are four wins away from winning another championship in three years. With the way things are going, it’s hard to doubt these guys. They certainly taught this writer a lesson.   The post Never-say-die Giants show Cards something appeared first on Bay Area Sports Nut.