The 2014 Giants fell out of first place with a tremendous early-summer thud. They fell out of the top wild-card spot with a tepid late summer. They kept tumbling until it was time to rise, dust themselves off and become the last National League club standing.
Mobbing was more like it, after the Giants captured their third pennant in five seasons in the most thrilling way possible Thursday night.
After Michael Morse so improbably tied Game 5 of the National League Championship Series with an eighth-inning homer off Pat Neshek, Travis Ishikawa hit a three-run homer off Michael Wacha with one out in the ninth for a 6-3 win that sent AT&T Park into a state of delirium, and the Giants to the World Series.
The Giants won their seventh pennant in San Francisco and 21st in franchise history with, of all things, the long ball.
They will face the Kansas City Royals in the first all-wild-card World Series since Giants-Angels in 2002. Game 1 is Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium, with Bumgarner able to pitch on regular rest and likely facing James Shields.
Since their 1987 loss to the Cardinals, the Giants have won four consecutive NLCS, the past three against St. Louis.
The 2014 resemblence to 2002 was eerie.
The Giants, playing against St. Louis in Game 5 at AT&T Park, trailed by a run going into the eighth inning before tying it, then walking off with the pennant on Kenny Lofton’s single in the ninth against Steve Kline.
In this game, Pablo Sandoval hit a leadoff single in the ninth against Wacha, making his first appearance of the postseason, an odd spot to make his debut, with St. Louis’ season on the line.
Hunter Pence tantalized the crowd with a flyball to right-center, but it was caught. But the Giants reclaimed momentum in the inning when Wacha walked Brandon Belt on four pitches.
Ishikawa then launched a 2-0 pitch into the history books, reaching the front of the arcade.
Ishikawa didn’t run around the bases. He flew, his arms spread like an airplane’s wings as he rounded first base.
The Giants, down 3-2 after eight solid innings from Madison Bumgarner, sent Morse to bat leading off the eighth against Pet Neshek, just into the game after seven superb innings from Adam Wainwright.
Morse, who had batted seven times since Aug. 31 without a hit, got a 1-1 fastball and slammed it over the fence down the left-field line. As the ball soared into the tunnel alongside the bleachers, Morse raised his hands and celebrated around the bases.
His first hit and RBI since Aug. 30, and first homer since Aug. 15, tied the game at 3-3, sparing Bumgarner a loss after he surrendered two solo homers in the fourth, by Matt Adams and Tony Cruz, to give the Cardinals their 3-2 lead.
Those homers had soured the same crowd that cheered the Giants’ first homer of the series, a bolt out of the blue from Joe Panik with Gregor Blanco aboard in the third.
Th0se were the only two runs against Wainwright in his seven innings.
Santiago Casilla took a 16-game postseaon scoreless streak to the mound and helped the Cardinals load the bases with two walks, one, to Tony Cruz, after the left side of the defense saved the a run.
Pablo Sandoval dived for a Kolton Wong grounder and tipped it toward Brandon Crawford, who grabbed the ball and fired a strong, off-balance throw to second for a force and the second out.
Manager Bruce Bochy turned to Jeremy Affeldt to escape the bases-loaded jam, and Affeldt complied. He fielded pinch-hitter Oscar Taveras right-side bouncer and dragged his gimpy all the way to first himself to send the game into the bottom of the ninth, still tied 3-3.
In the first inning Thursday, Bumgarner was in trouble. Jon Jay and Matt Holliday reached across the plate and hit opposite-field singles. Bumgarner responded by backing Jhonny Peralta off the plate with a fastball.
Bumgarner came inside again, and Peralta smoked the ball. But Pablo Sandoval leaped to catch it and fired to second to double off Jay to get the Giants off the field.
The Cardinals scored first when, for the first time, the Giants were bitten by having Ishikawa in left field.
With one out in the third, and Cruz and Matt Carpenter on base after walking, Ishikawa moved laterally when he should have retreated on Jay’s line drive. A last-second leap could not save Ishikawa.
The bail sailed over his head for a double and a 1-0 St. Louis lead. Just as significant, the Cardinals had two more runners in scoring position.
Then, Bumgarner threw up a stop sign, retiring Matt Holliday on a flyball too shallow for a sacrifice fly and Peralta on another flyball, which Ishikawa caught with ease.
Then, the unexpected.
With two outs in the bottom of the third, Blanco singled for the second time in three innings against Wainwright and Panik hit the Giants’ first homer since Brandon Belt won the 18-inning Division Series game in Washington.
When Panik returned to the dugout after reaching the Arczde, the Giants pounded him as hard as he pounded the ball.
Panik’s head might still have been ringing when the lead he provided disappeared on Adams’ homer in the fourth, which tied the game 2-2. Bumgarner had not allowed a home run to a lefty since the Rockies’ Carlos Gonzalez on April 11.
Then, a righty took him deep as well. Cruz found the left-field bleachers later in the inning to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. Like Panik, Cruz had one regular-season home run.
Sandoval’s leadoff double in the fourth, and a Hunter Pence walk, gave the Giants a tremendous opportunity to sock back, until the Cardinals finally got the kind of break that seemed to happen only on the other side in the series.
Belt lined out to second baseman Kolten Wong, who doubled off Sandoval.
From there, Wainwright got stronger and made a signfiicant statement in the sixth when he struck out Buster Posey, Sandoval and Pence in order.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said he did not plan to give the Cardinals a pep talk before the game.
Bochy said he had no plans either to remind his boys that the Giants won three in a row to take last year’s NLCS.
“Some things don’t need to be said,” Bochy said. “The last thing you want to do is put any negative thoughts in their minds. These guys are not going to drop their guard. They are going to leave it all out on the field.
‘You don’t want to put added pressure on them – ‘this could happen, that could happen.’ You go out ther eand pay. These guys will be ready.”
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