Yes men: Giants find playoff groove again – USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO – Hunter Pence briefly interrupted the champagne-soaked pandemonium in the San Francisco Giants clubhouse to gather the team for some enlightened words.
Known as the inspirational force behind the Giants’ run of six victories in elimination games two years ago, Pence this time yielded the floor to Ryan Vogelsong, whose 5 2/3 sparkling innings had set the tone for San Francisco’s series-clinching 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.
Vogelsong is not nearly as loquacious as Pence, but his exhortation was entirely fitting for a club that rarely overwhelms opponents but keeps beating them in the playoffs.
“Are we a team with some big (guts)?” Vogelsong asked, immediately getting the response that has turned into the Giants’ unofficial slogan: “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
The Giants are back in the National League Championship Series for the third time in five years because they keep finding ways to scratch out enough runs to support their superb pitching, which once again has been their postseason hallmark.
On Tuesday all three of their runs scored without the benefit of a hit, one on a bases-loaded walk, the second one on a groundout and the game-winner on a wild pitch. Nothing pretty about it, but plenty effective.
“That’s our way sometimes,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We scratch and paw for runs.”
But mostly, they silence opposing offenses, and in this postseason that has come as a surprise.
San Francisco can no longer rely on Matt Cain (injured) or Tim Lincecum (ineffective) to spearhead its playoff march. Yes, Madison Bumgarner has emerged as an ace, but Giants starters ranked no better than 10th in the NL in ERA in the regular season, with a 3.74 mark.
The club even had to supplement the rotation by trading for Jake Peavy, who was 1-9 with the Boston Red Sox at the time, when it became clear Cain would not return this year from his elbow woes.
And yet, both in the wild-card game – an 8-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates – and in their four-game victory in the NLDS, the Giants’ pitching absolutely muzzled two of the top hitting attacks in the league. Their starters put up a 1.04 ERA against the Nationals, who hit .164 for the series.
“From starters all the way to relievers, they really executed pitches; didn’t make many mistakes,” catcher Buster Posey said. “Thinking back to (Tim Hudson’s) start specifically, I feel like a few of the hits they got were on pitches that came back to the middle. That’s a good offense over there. That just tells you how dialed in our guys were.”
Nobody gets more intensely focused than Vogelsong, who battled through an up-and-down season and closed it with a 5.53 ERA in five September starts. Vogelsong, 37, had not pitched in 10 days, which not only gave him time to reenergize, but also the opportunity to tweak his mechanics.
Pitching coach Dave Righetti said Vogelsong’s last bullpen session was his best one of the season, and the veteran right-hander came out firing his fastball at up to 95 mph, about four mph faster than usual.
The Nationals couldn’t get their first hit until the fifth inning, and by that point they were down 2-0. Vogelsong settled for a no-decision when Bryce Harper’s home run off rookie reliever Hunter Strickland tied it 2-2 in the seventh, but became the second pitcher ever to log five consecutive postseason starts in which he allowed one run or less. Curt Schilling was the first to do it.
“I was really focused on what I was doing with my lower half,” Vogelsong said of his work in between starts. “Just helped me get some more velocity and make my pitches better.”
Not many Nationals deciphered them – Vogelsong allowed just two hits – but Harper’s one-man attack kept them in the game. After starter Gio Gonzalez made an error, misplayed a bunt and issued a bases-loaded walk to facilitate the Giants’ two-run second, Harper’s RBI double in the fifth sliced the margin in half.
He then tied it in the seventh with his third homer of the series, giving him four RBI for the NLDS. The rest of the Nationals had three.
Washington might have tied it earlier had Pence not made an outstanding catch of Jayson Werth’s one-out drive in the sixth, crashing against the right-field wall to haul in the deep drive and robbing him of at least a double, possibly a triple.
“If a defensive play can swing a game back in a team’s favor,” Posey said, “I think that one definitely did.”
In typical Giants fashion, they didn’t slug their way back to the lead but rather caught a break, as reliever Aaron Barrett uncorked a bases-loaded wild pitch in the seventh. That and two shutout innings of relief by Sergio Romo and closer Santiago Casilla was all the Giants needed to cash in their third one-run victory of the NLDS, making them 11-1 in their last 12 postseason games.
It was a series that brought back memories of the World Series-winning 2010 team, whose penchant for winning close games became known as “Torture.”
Of course, the 2012 club had to survive those six elimination games, so squeaking past opponents may simply be part of the Giants’ m.o. when the postseason rolls around.
“Guys find some way to get it done,” Bumgarner said. “It’s not always pretty, but regardless, we find a way to win.”
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