What is this all about?
Here's the only November game the San Francisco Giants ever played. This is it; we've hit the very end of the road. It's the most important game in San Francisco history and it ends our daily journey.
2010 World Series Game 5 at Texas
When the Giants won their first ever World Series, Duane Kuiper's call of the final out included references to legendary Giants past, "you can't help but think that this group is celebrating for the Say Hey Kid, for Will the Thrill, celebrating for #25" When you spend a year looking at the story of every team in San Francisco history you really appreciate that call and how it helps conclude all of these stories.
We won games 1 and 2 at home, lost game 3 but won last night. We've got a 3 games to 1 lead, this is the last game we'd play at Texas. The first ever San Francisco Giants game played in November. Tim Lincecum going for the good guys; Cliff Lee for the Rangers.
We get a 2 out Posey single in the first, but can't advance him.
Lincecum retires the Rangers in order.
We go in order in the second.
Lincecum gets them in 6 pitches.
In the third we get our second hit, a 2 out Andres Torres single, but he doesn't move up.
The Rangers get their first baserunner, a 2 out walk to Mitch Moreland, but nothing else.
Lee gets us in order in the 4th.
Lincecum gives up a leadoff single to Michael Young, but he never gets into scoring position.
A Ranger error gives us a baserunner in the 5th, but he's erased on a double play and we only send 3 to the plate.
Lincecum needs just 8 pitches to get them in order.
We get another 2 out single in the 6th, this time it's Freddy Sanchez, but he doesn't advance.
The Rangers also get a single, by Moreland, who also dies at first base.
Top of the 7th inning.
Cody Ross and Juan Uribe, each with 2 strike counts, open the inning with back to back singles. Aubrey Huff bunts them over, but Lee strikes out Pat Burrell, bringing Edgar Renteria to the plate. Renteria had a walk off single to win the World Series as a 20 year old Marlin shortstop, this is his second to last big league season. On the third pitch of the at bat, Renteria hits a 3 run home run to left center.
When Lincecum gets the first out of the bottom of the 7th, we have a 3 run lead with 8 outs remaining, that is an 89% chance to win the game, meaning an 89% chance to win our first ever World Series. Not quite as strong as 2002, but you'd take it.
The next batter is Nelson Cruz and he homers.
The next batter is Ian Kinsler and he walks. Bringing the tying run to the plate with only one out.
Lincecum then strikes out David Murphy and Bengie Molina, who was the Giants starting catcher just a few months prior. We go to the 8th with a 3-1 lead. 6 outs away from the Championship.
We get another 2 out single in our half, but the score stays 3-1.
Lincecum stays in the game. He strikes out Moreland. 5 outs away. He gets Elvis Andrus to ground back to the mound. 4 outs away. And Michael Young grounds to third.
We go to the 9th. Neftali Feliz retires us in order. Brian Wilson comes out of the pen to close the game, he's facing 3-4-5.
Josh Hamilton won the AL MVP in 2010. He led all of MLB in BA, SLG, and OPS. His 170 OPS+ is his career best by nearly 30 points. Wilson strikes him out on 4 pitches. 2 outs away.
Vlad Guerrero is a borderline Hall of Famer, I've got him as a top 20 all time RF, with a career like Sam Crawford or Harry Heilmann. He was 35 here, in his second to last season in the bigs - but he still hit .300, had 29 homers and he grounds the first pitch to short. 1 out away.
Nelson Cruz was 29 in 2010, his 146 OPS+ was the best full season mark of his career until 2015 (Cruz's performance has spiked in late career) he worked his way to a full count and then at 10:30 Eastern time, 7:30 Pacific, on November 1, 2010, Brian Wilson struck him out.
You can't help but think that this group is celebrating...
For that '59 club, that had a 2 game lead with 8 to play...
For the greatest of all the Giants squads, the '62 team that chased down the Dodgers...
For the '65 team that won 14 straight in September...
For the '69 team that swept the Dodgers at home in late September to take a half game lead...
For the 1971 National League West Champs...
For the '78 team, down only 2 games at the top of September, battling the Dodgers and Reds...
For the '82 team, down 13 at the end of July and only a game back with 6 to play...
For the 1987 National League West Champs...
For the 1989 National League Champions...
For the best Giants team of my lifetime, the 1993 team that won 103 games...
For the 1997 National League West Champs...the '98 team that lost the 1 game playoff....the 2000 National League West Champs that won 97 games....
For the 2002 National League Champion San Francisco Giants.
For the 101 game winning 2003 National League West Champs....
For Orlando Cepeda. For Willy Kirkland. And Jimmy Davenport. For Jack Sanford and Mike McCormick.
For Felipe, Matty, Jesus, Moises.
For Chuck Hiller and Tom Haller. For Jim Ray Hart and Billy O'Dell. For Gaylord. And Ken Henderson.
For Dick Dietz and Tito Fuentes and Ron Hunt and Frank Linzy and Chris Speier.
For Bobby Bonds. For Juan Marichal.
For Jim Barr-Ed Halicki-Gary Lavelle-Greg Minton-Bob Knepper and the Count.
For Jack the Ripper. And Ivie. And Vida. And Atlee. And Chili. And Johnnie LeMaster.
For Joe Morgan. For Reggie Smith. For Jeffrey Leonard.
For Darrell Evans and Bob Brenly and Dusty and Laskey and Kruk and Kuip.
For Chris Brown and Jose Uribe and Dave Dravecky and Rod Beck.
For Robby and Matt Williams and Mitch and the Thrill. For Reuschel and Bedrock and Caveman Robinson.
For Aldrete. And Candy. And Garrelts. And Brett Butler and D-Lew.
For Black and Burkett and Billy Swift and Jason Schmidt.
For Jeff Brantley and Trevor Wilson. For Kirt Manwaring and Salomon Torres.
For Rich Aurilia and Mark Gardner. For Stan Javier and Marvin Benard and JT Snow.
For Jeff Kent. And Kirk Rueter. And Shawn Estes. And Russ Ortiz. And Robb Nen.
For Bill Mueller and Ellis Burks. For Felix Rodriguez. For Livan Hernandez, Benito Santiago and Pedro Feliz.
For Shawon Dunston and Kenny Lofton and Ray Durham and Jose Cruz, Jr.
For Marquis Grissom. And Noah Lowry. And Randy Winn. And Omar Vizquel.
For Stretch.
For the Home Run King, Barry Lamar Bonds.
For Willie Mays.
For all of them. And all of us.
The San Francisco Giants are World Series Champions.
Here's the roster of our first ever World Champions. Flags Fly Forever.
C Buster Posey
1B Aubrey Huff
2B Freddy Sanchez
SS Edgar Renteria
3B Juan Uribe
LF Pat Burrell
CF Andres Torres
RF Cody Ross
C Eli Whiteside
IF Mike Fontenot
IF Travis Ishikawa
IF Pablo Sandoval
OF Aaron Rowand
OF Nate Schierholtz
SP Tim Lincecum
SP Matt Cain
SP Madison Bumgarner
SP Jonathan Sanchez
P Brian Wilson
P Jeremy Affeldt
P Javier Lopez
P Santiago Casilla
P Ramon Ramirez
P Guillermo Mota
P Sergio Romo
There's no tomorrow. Go Giants!
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