World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval used his
feet, glove and arm — not his bat — to make a clutch play that helped the San
Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings Sunday night to
finish off a sweep.
The third baseman charged Quintin Berry’s
bunt — barely avoided colliding with pitcher Matt Cain — with one man on base
and made an off-balance throw to get the speedy Berry out at first for the
second out of the third inning.
“I called it
late,” Sandoval said. “But (Cain) got out of the way so quickly, so we made the
play easy.”
Two pitches later, Miguel Cabrera hit a
two-run, go-ahead homer that would’ve been a three-run shot that could’ve
decided the game without an extra inning if Sandoval hadn’t thrown Berry out.
“It ended up being real big,” said Cain, who had to hurdle over part
of Sandoval to stay out of his way. “It was huge for Pablo to make an
unbelievable play like that. It’s one of the reasons we call him ‘Kung Fu
Panda.’”
PRODUCTIVE PEN: Jeremy Affeldt was first.
Then Santiago Casilla came on and got the ball to Sergio Romo, who closed it
out for San Francisco.
When Matt Cain was unable to finish off the
Detroit Tigers, his buddies in the bullpen took over.
Affeldt, Casilla and Romo combined for
three scoreless innings in relief of Cain, striking out seven in all to help
the Giants seal their sweep of the Tigers.
Romo struck out the side in the 10th
inning, including Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera for the final out, for his
fourth save of the postseason.
“He’s a guy you want out there,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy
said. “He’s not afraid and commands the ball so well. Really, I know this is a
play on words, he saved us all year.”
Romo became the first pitcher to save at
least three games in the World Series since John Wetteland did it for the New
York Yankees in 1996.
Casilla hit Omar Infante, breaking his left
hand, in the ninth, but bounced back by getting Gerald Laird to hit into a
fielder’s choice and got the win.
Affeldt gave up a leadoff walk in the
eighth inning, then struck out the middle of Detroit’s lineup — Cabrera, Prince
Fielder and Delmon Young — while pitching 1 2-3 innings.
While the bullpen gets credit for its
performance, Affeldt dished some back to Cain.
“What an amazing job keeping us in the game seven innings so we
didn’t need to use our ‘pen until late in the game,” Affeldt said.
RETURN TRIP: Manager Bruce Bochy guided San
Francisco to the 2010 championship and to another title on Sunday night.
But long before that, he was a backup
catcher for the San Diego Padres in the 1984 World Series.
“That was so long ago, but it is amazing how things come back
around,” Bochy said.
In his only at-bat, he got a pinch-hit
single in the ninth inning of Game 5 at Tiger Stadium, the day Detroit closed
out the championship.
“I have great memories of being in the World Series, not real good
ones on how it came out,” he said.
“But what a thrill for any player, and of course myself, when you get
to the World Series for the first time. We had split in San Diego, then came
here and they beat us here,” he said. “But great time for me, I got one at-bat,
and I was thrilled that Dick Williams put me in there.”
HALL OF FAME PRAISE: Al Kaline played in an
era of greats, from Ted Williams to Mickey Mantle to Reggie Jackson.
Yet the former Detroit standout says the
top guy he watched was someone he never faced in a regular-season game.
Kaline, now 77 and a special assistant for
the Tigers, was at AT&T Park in San Francisco earlier in the World Series.
Willie Mays, at 81, took part in the first-ball ceremony honoring Giants stars
before Game 1.
“Willie Mays was the best player I ever saw,” Kaline said. “I was
lucky to see a lot of them. But Willie was something special.”
“To me, he was the poster boy for baseball. The way he played, his
enthusiasm and his ability,” Kaline said of his fellow Hall of Famer.
The Tigers and Giants had never met in
postseason play before this year, and there was no interleague play in their
day. With Detroit working out in Florida and the Giants in Arizona, they didn’t
see each other in spring training.
Mays made his first All-Star team in 1954
and Kaline was first picked a year later. They were then chosen in every summer
showcase through 1967.
“That’s where I got to see him, and he was fun to watch. He could
really play,” Kaline said.
Kaline, however, said he never got to spend
much time with Mays.
“I see him at the Hall of Fame and like to stop by, shake his hand
and just be who I am,” he said. “I’m not kidding myself. I was a good player.
But he was great. There aren’t too many who were at his level.”
No comments:
Post a Comment