Sergio Romo, the pitcher who was asked to step in as the Giants' closer when their epic closer was lost for the season, struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th inning, with the Giants ahead 4-3. They won the fourth game and the World Series.
Matt Cain pitched a solid 6 innings, and both Jeremy Affeldt (with 4 straight strikeouts in 8th and 9th) and Romo were brilliant in relief. While he was a key factor in how the Giants pitched and fielded (pitch location and fielding position) Buster Posey hadn't been a hitting factor in the Series until his 2-run homer.
Then in the 10th, utility infielder Ryan Theriot--the unlikeliest designated hitter ever, doing it for the first time--had his first hit of the Series, a single. Then the Giants did what they did to win in the postseason: they moved the runner to second on Brandon Crawford's sacrifice. And it was Marco Scutaro who drove in the winning run with a single. Scutaro--who at 35 had never been to the World Series--was credited for his clubhouse inspiration at the end of the season, helping to make this particular set of players a close-knit team. Then he became a hitting machine in the postseason. This was the biggest.
On paper, this may look like the Giants' 2010 win, but for me, this one was much more fun to watch. It came down to a Series with great pitching, but it was the way the Giants played--the way they scored runs, the way they fielded--it was the kind of baseball that I remember that the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates played.
Bruce Bochy made incredibly apt managerial moves. Perhaps the greatest one was not to mess with the chemistry this team had to end the season. Pablo Sandoval was MVP of the Series, with a record-tying number of total hits to go along with his three homers in the first game. He talked later about the slow process of regaining strength after injuries during the season. He'd played so poorly in 2010 that he wasn't used much in the postseason, and another hero of this year--Barry Zito--didn't pitch at all. They persevered, as did players that had been traded around for years, found themselves here, and jelled as a team.
So for quite a few other reasons as well, this was a fun team to watch these last few months and particularly these past few weeks.
BUT I can't let pass this bizarre misuse of language that has infected announcers and even ESPN, which is usually careful to be precise in its language. Why do they persist in saying that the Giants "clinched" the World Series? A team can clinch a pennant when they are ahead in the standings by 10 games and there are 9 left to go--or when no combination of their losses and other teams' wins can prevent them from winning at season's end. A team can clinch a championship when no other team can mathematically win enough games to overtake their lead, but everybody still plays out the season.
But when you win 4 games of a 7 game series, and the series is therefore over: you have WON the World Series. There's no clinching in the World Series. This is baseball!
Below: fireworks in San Francisco because the Giants WON the World Series (SF Chronicle photo)
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