The three unlikely heroes who sent the Giants back to the World Series
SAN FRANCISCO — One of the many fans filing out of their seats after the San Francisco Giants clinched a trip to the World Series bellowed, “Travis Ishikawa is the best left fielder ever.”
He’s not, of course. But such hyperbole is allowed 10 minutes after Ishikawa immortalized himself in the Giants history books.
Ishikawa, the left fielder who isn’t actually a left fielder, hit a three-run homer that sent AT&T Park into hysterics, sent the St. Louis Cardinals home, losers of the National League Championship Series and sent the Giants to Kansas City, where they’ll play the Royals in the World Series.
This was one of those games that turned everything you thought you knew upside-down, the type of game that made unlikely heroes out of three Giants, as they bucked the club’s recent history with three big swings.
The Giants came into Game 5 in the middle of a power shortage. They hadn’t homered since Game 2 of the NLDS and had only hit two homers the entire postseason.
In the hours leading up to Thursday’s game, the Twittersphere was buzzing about how if the Giants could win the NLCS without hitting a homer and they’d be the first team yo win a postseason series without a homer since 1990.
So, of course the Giants hit three. Each one unlikely its own way.
Joe Panik put the Giants on the board with a two-run homer in the third. He’s the rookie second baseman (and former first-round draft pick) who sat around Triple-A earlier this year thinking “What’s wrong with me?” as rumors swirled about which second baseman the Giants needed to acquire at the trade deadline. Panik, to his credit, has been great since the Giants put their faith him. This, however, was only his second home run as a Giant.
Michael Morse tied the game in the eighth with a riveting solo shot off Cardinals relief pitcher Pat Neshek. It probably shouldn’t have happened, so that’s why it did. Neshek hadn’t given up a hit in the series and Morse hadn’t hit a homer in two months. After hurting his oblique, Morse hardly played in September and had been used only as a pinch hitter in October. Pinch hitter vs. lights-out reliever? You’d think advantage Neshek, but then Morse deposited a ball over the left-field wall and October surprised us all again.
Finally, Ishikawa hit his game-winner, a moment that will define his career even if he never plays a day of left field for the Giants after 2014. It also put a nice ribbon on a Ishikawa’s odd year. He started as a first baseman with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but was released. The Giants, the team that drafted him, signed him and sent him to Triple-A. He hit two homers in 47 games for the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies. He was called up in July but by late September found himself learning to play left field because the Giants needed a body there. He entered the postseason as San Francisco’s left fielder even though he’d started three games there previously.
“If you would have told me, it was me, Ish and Mo that would have hit home runs,” said a smiling Joe Panik after the game, “I would told you you were crazy.”
It’s baseball that’s crazy, though. It exists some days just to make you believe one thing then break off a curveball in your face the next day.
Sure, Ishikawa is supposed to be playing left field. Sure, Morse shakes off the rust and goes deep off a guy nobody’s been able to hit. Sure, Panik proves he’s the second baseman the Giants were looking for all along.
If someone told you these things in August, you might laugh at them.
On a magical October night, though, as fireworks blasted above San Francisco and fans shouted as they left their seats, this all made perfect sense.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
