On a cool, damp night in Detroit, the San Francisco Giants — who came back from seemingly insurmountable deficits in their two playoff series — completed a sweep of the Tigers in 10 innings to capture the World Series for the second time in three years.
Their 4-3 Game 4 win capped a dramatic post-season for San Francisco, which trailed the Cincinnati Reds 0-2 in the divisional series and the St. Louis Cardinals 1-3 in the NLCS.
Marco Scutaro, who has been outstanding, delivered one more key hit this October, a go-ahead single with two outs in the 10th inning that proved to be the winning run.
“Detroit probably didn’t know what it was in for,” Giants general manager Brian Sabean said. “Our guys had a date with destiny.”
The Giants combined the most important elements of championship baseball. After three straight wins that looked relatively easy, they sealed this victory when Sergio Romo got Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera to look at strike three for the final out.
A wild on-field celebration ensued, and was carried into the clubhouse.
“Tonight was a battle,” Giants star Buster Posey said. “And I think tonight was a fitting way for us to end it because those guys played hard. They didn’t stop, and it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Posey, the only player who was in the starting lineup when San Francisco beat Texas in the 2010 clincher, and the underdog Giants celebrated in the center of the diamond at Comerica Park.
They built toward this party all month, winning six elimination games this postseason. In the clubhouse, they hoisted the trophy, passed it around and shouted the name of each player who held it.
Benched during the 2010 Series, Pablo Sandoval, nicknamed Kung Fu Panda, went 8 for 16, including a three-homer performance in Game 1.
“You learn,” Sandoval said. “You learn from everything that happened in your career. . . We’re working hard to enjoy this moment right now.”
Cabrera delivered the first big hit for Detroit, interrupting San Francisco’s run of dominant pitching with a two-run homer that blew over the right-field wall in the third.
Posey put the Giants ahead 3-2 with a two-run homer in the sixth and Delmon Young hit a tying home run in the bottom half.
It then became a matchup of bullpens, and the Giants prevailed.
Ryan Theriot led off the 10th with a single against Phil Coke, moved up on Brandon Crawford’s sacrifice and scored on a shallow single by Scutaro, the MVP of the NL championship series. Center fielder Austin Jackson made a throw home, to no avail.
“That’s what it makes so much special, the way we did it,” Scutaro said. “We’re always against the wall and my team, it just came through first series, second series and now we sweep the Tigers.”
