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| Ishikawa provided the power for SF. Photo Credit: Jeff Curry /USA Today Sports |
Travis Ishikawa hit a game winning three run home run that sent the San Francisco Giants to the World Series with a 6-3 win over the St Louis Cardinals on Thursday night at AT&T Park.
By: Michael Hanley
The Giants wrapped up the National League pennant in five games and have now set themselves up with a trip to Kansas City to meet the AL Pennent winners in the Royals who will have home field advantage in this World Series. The series will begin Tuesday night.
The rally would start in the ninth inning with none other than Pablo Sandoval who got a base hit off Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha. This was Wacha's first postseason appearance for St Louis and unfortunately looked rusty and out of rhythm.
He at one point threw five consecutive pitches out of the strike zone which only further complicated the inning for himself and the Cardinals. This lack of control was taken fully advantage of by San Francisco as they were very patient at the plate against him.
After an out was recorded, Brandon Belt would work a walk and put two on for the Giants as their bench and fans in the ballpark were sensing a real opportunity to end this game, they just did not know how it would end after the various amounts of ways this club has won games in this postseason run.
This time it would be the rare home run ball by Ishikawa that he drilled to the right field seats that sent the ballpark into a frenzy as they once again completed another comeback victory over St. Louis.
This all would not have been possible if not for Michael Morse's heroics in the eighth inning. He came off the bench as a pinch hitter and smacked a home run off of Cardinals reliever Pat Neshak, who was unable to keep the one run lead he inherited from the start Adam Wainwright.
It got the game tied at three and shifted momentum completely to the San Francisco side in this game. It was a punch to the gut that the Cardinals could not come up off the mat from and counter with anything to swing momentum back in their favor.
Madison Bumgardner was named the NLCS MVP with his brilliant work in this series to help the Giants seal this series up in five games. He had the cardinal hitters guessing most of the time as he was able to get the key outs he needed to keep his team in it.
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