The San Francisco Giants completed a feat never done in National League as they completed a three game comeback with a 6-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds to win the NLDS and move onto the league championship series against the winner of the Cardinals-Nationals series.Buster Posey crushed a grand slam to pace a six run fifth inning and the Giants were able to hold off several Reds chances (and they had a few good ones) to give the margin back in piecemeal manner for the victory.
Matt Cain was the winner as he pitched five and two thirds,allowing three runs with Sergio Romo grabbing the save as the final of five Giants relievers to throw on the day.
Game 1 of the NLCS will either be in Washington Sunday against the Nationals or in San Francisco against the Cardinals...
Giant Steps
1) The talk going into this series was that the Giants starting staff would be strong,but there were concerns about the bullpen.
Things reversed is other than maybe Ryan Vogelsong,the starters did not pitch nearly as well as they are capable of.
Hopefully,that will bode well for the Giants going forward and will not foreshadow problems in the next round...
2) The bullpen stepped up and pitched beyond expectations in the three wins over the Reds.
Take the final line of note one and place it here for the bullpen.
3) Buster Posey's grand slam off the face of the second deck gave the Giants a 6-0 lead and obviously was the key blow,but to me,it made me think about the stat heads of the game that believe clutch hitting is a myth,
I can understand that the numbers crunch makes it appear that clutch hitting is non-existent and looking at those numbers,one could agree.
However,there are players that just appear to "rise to the moment" far more often than the norm-Buster Posey is one of those players....
4) Brandon Crawford may be less than average with the stick,but wow,he is a future gold glove winner,if I ever saw one.
Crawford makes plays that are not only flashy,but he makes the routine play as well.
Bank on Crawford winning a fielding award in the year or so....
5) Biggest play other than the Posey pop?
Cincinnati running into a double play with no outs in the fifth.
Ryan Hanigan took strike three from Matt Cain as he looked to have missed a sign and Jay Bruce was then thrown out at third by Buster Posey.
A quick two outs and that enabled Matt Cain to leave the game with two down instead of just one.
George Kontos retired the next batter and the threat was finished...
6) The Reds had not lost three games in a row at home all season.
It is funny how things like that seem to happen in the post season after not happening at all in the long term,but it happens more than you think.
One that strikes my mind was the Cubs-Marlins series where the Cubs had not lost back to back starts of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior all season and then did just that to lose the set.
7) Now the future.
Cardinals or Nationals?
Cardinals gives you home field,Nationals gives you a greater stage.
Washington would be more enjoyable to root against,but a loss would be more painful to take.
Anyone out there have tickets for Nats-Giants????
Photo Credit:Andrew Weber
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