Posted on 10/11/2012 2:19:43 PM PDT by PapaNew
Buster Posey continued his remarkable comeback story and helped the Giants complete theirs.
Posey's grand slam culminated a six-run outburst in the fifth inning that propelled the Giants to a 6-4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in Thursday's decisive Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
After losing the series' first two games, San Francisco won the next three games to reach the NL Championship Series, which will begin Sunday against the winner of the St. Louis-Washington NLDS.
The Giants made all kinds of history by eliminating Cincinnati. Previously, all 21 teams winning the first two games in an NLDS since it was added to the postseason format in 1995 proceeded to capture the series. The Giants became the first club to buck this trend and the only NL team to finish its surge with three consecutive road victories. San Francisco and Cincinnati joined Texas and Tampa Bay in 2010 by playing the only Division Series in which road teams won each game. The Giants also were the eighth team in either league to erase a 2-0 deficit and win a best-of-five postseason series.
Numerous Giants hastened the effort that brought them to the LCS for the sixth time since the franchise moved to San Francisco in 1958. But the most powerful contribution on this sunny yet chilly afternoon at Great American Ball Park came from Posey, the favorite to win the NL Most Valuable Player Award one year after he sustained multiple left leg injuries that sidelined him for much of the season.
Thursday initially belonged to San Francisco's Matt Cain and Cincinnati's Mat Latos, the starting pitchers who combined to create a scoreless tie through four innings.
Then Gregor Blanco singled to open the fifth, marking the first time a Giants leadoff batter reached base. Brandon Crawford, who was hitless in eight Division Series at-bats, tripled into the right-field corner on a 2-0 pitch, scoring Blanco. Crawford held as Cain hit a comebacker. Angel Pagan then tapped a grounder to shortstop Zack Cozart, who was drawn in along with the other infielders for a possible play at the plate on Crawford. But Cozart dropped the ball as he cocked his arm to throw home, enabling Crawford to score and Pagan to reach first.
Marco Scutaro walked and Pablo Sandoval singled to load the bases. Up came Posey, who owned averages of .176 (3-for-17) in the series and .250 (7-for-28) with the bases loaded in his career during the regular season. He drilled a 2-2 pitch into the left-field upper deck, an estimated 424 feet from home plate, to launch a spirited round of high-fives, backslapping and other expressions of euphoria in the Giants' dugout.
Posey also homered off Latos in Game 1 of the series.
The Reds weren't finished. They gradually narrowed the deficit with Brandon Phillips' two-run double in the fifth inning and Ryan Ludwick's leadoff homer in the sixth. The Giants extricated themselves from further trouble as Posey threw out Jay Bruce on an attempted steal of third base, following Ryan Hanigan's strikeout, to complete a sixth-inning double play. Jeremy Affeldt stranded two runners in the seventh by coaxing a comebacker from Ludwick, who amassed a series-high three homers and represented the potential tying run. And with Reds on first and second and two outs in the eighth, Pagan dove to snare pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro's sinking liner to prevent a hit and, quite possibly, a run or two.
Sergio Romo allowed a run in the ninth on a walk and two singles before locking down the save and the NLCS berth.
There once was a team called the Giants
Against playoff odds in defiance
They lost the first two
But somehow pulled through On Posey and God in reliance
WAY TO GO GIANTS!!!
Cripes. It’s Oct 11th. the World Series should already be over. It’s no longer baseball season.
There once was a team called the Giants
Against playoff odds in defiance
They lost the first two
But somehow pulled through
On Posey and God in reliance
WAY TO GO GIANTS!!!
Right, well, the World Series still makes it in as “The October Classic.”
Nice job!
Love them Giants!
May the least leftist team win.
“After losing the series’ first two games, San Francisco won the next three games to reach the NL Championship Series”
Take heart, Nats, take heart.
Indeed!! Go Giants!!!! One hell of a resilient bunch to come through after those disastrous first two games.
That would probably be St. Louis, based on LaRussa’s politics.
Bruce Bochy was on the 1984 Padre roster when the Padres lost the first two games against the Cubs. Padres came back and swept the final 3 games at home. I think that was the only time a team lost the first two and came back to win a 5 game NLCS series.
We are all sad in Cincinnati, thank you very much. After being up 2 game to none, our Reds lost three in a row at home.
BTW, Dusty Baker used to manage the Giants. He was a good manager, but somehow I never felt he had a World Series win in him, at least in SF. Maybe someday in Cincinnati.
35 years in the SF Bay Area Jints Fan PING!!!
Go Jints!
The Baltimore Orioles should apologize for the pathetic display they are putting on
If playing against the Yankees or being in the playoffs makes you that nervous you shouldn’t be a major leaguer
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