SAN FRANCISCO — They are a team of characters with a young star behind the plate. No one expected the Giants to make the playoffs after falling so far behind the Padres in the regular season. No one expected them to beat the Phillies.
Now the Giants are one win away from the World Series. They haven’t won a World Series since 1954 when Willie Mays patrolled center field for the New York Giants, and they swept the Cleveland Indians, who won 111 games that season.
Yes, anything is possible in baseball.
In the ninth, after singles by Aubrey Huff and amazing rookie catcher Buster Posey put runners on the corners with one out against Game 2 winner Roy Oswalt, Juan Uribe, playing with a sore wrist, lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Huff and send AT&T Park into bedlam as the Giants came away with a 6-5 win over the Phillies and a 3-1 lead in the NLCS.
Mays was 23 in 1954. Posey is 23.
“We’re in a good position,” said Posey, who became the first rookie in the San Francisco era of the Giants to collect four hits in a postseason game. “We’ve got to come out and battle.”
“You don’t get caught up thinking whether you are the underdogs,” said Bochy, who keeps pulling winning lineups out of his cap. Last night he pulled out a panda. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval, aka Kung-Fu Panda, lined a big two-run double in the sixth.
Earlier in the at-bat, Sandoval lined a ball down the right field line that appeared to hit the line but was called foul. Four pitches later Sandoval ripped his shot to left-center to score two. He said he just tried to stay calm in the at-bat.
“Especially when you hit two doubles, just kidding,” he said with a laugh. “I calmed myself down. Count to 10. This is a dream come true, last year I was on the beach at this time.”
Life is a beach. The Giants can wrap it up with Tim Lincecum on the mound in Epic Matchup II against Roy Halladay.
If the Giants somehow win their first World Series since 1954 Bochy is manager of the decade. Yankees manager Joe Girardi sure could learn some lessons from him.
Bochy gave Sandoval his first start of the series last night. He had not started any of San Francisco’s previous five post-season games. Strategy is a huge part of the game in the NL where there is no DH and every run is precious.
Bochy also dropped Cody Ross back to sixth and Ross responded with a huge double in that sixth that put runners on second and third for Sandoval.
The Giants are not good enough to throw the same lineup out there every game, but Posey is anchoring that lineup, besides his four hits, he made a super tag at home to nail Carlos Ruiz in the fifth.
Posey, who was 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs, had been 1-for-11 in the series.
“I just kept it simple tonight,” Posey said.
The Giants know nothing but close wins. They call their close wins: Torture. As one sign at AT&T Park proclaimed: Torture Never Felt So Good. This marked the first time since Sept. 25 that the Giants scored more than four runs in a game.
The Giants are different all around. Huff has taken a page out of Jason Giambi’s book with Rally Thongs that he passed out to the team.
“I don’t think anybody wants to see me in one,” Bochy said jokingly. “I don’t really enjoy seeing Aubrey in one. But he’s proud of his body and he likes to walk around in it and he gets a lot of laughs and keeps the guys loose. In my mind, they’re like the Dirty Dozen, the castoffs and the misfits, and he’s one of them. But he has fun with it and the guys like giving him a hard time about it.”
Bochy’s misfits have found a way to have fun and move one win away from the World Series.