The San Francisco Giants registered a comfortable 9-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the final and deciding Game 7 to set up a clash with the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
Marco Scutaro, series MVP said: "The rain never felt so good. We're going to the World Series, this is unbelievable."
Scutaro performed brilliantly with the bat and matched the NLCS record with 14 hits. It was his sixth multi-hit game.
It was a postseason full of twists and turns and the Giants did well to qualify for the World Series knocking out the defending champions.
Hunter Pence contributed for the Giants with a double while Matt Cain added an RBI single to help his team.
The Giants were trailing 3-1 to the Cardinals after Game 4. They however bounced back, winning their last three games thanks largely to some stellar performances by Ryan Vogelsong, Barry Zito and Cain.
The Giants will now take on the Tigers with Game 1 scheduled for Wednesday at the AT&T Park.
Justin Verlander will start for the Tigers Wednesday. Bruce Bochy, the Giants' manager, however, has not announced who will start the game against Verlander.
"These guys never quit," Bochy said. "They played with more heart, more determination than any club I've ever seen. They were relentless. They didn't want to go home. They just kept believing and they got it done, and I couldn't be prouder of a group of guys and what they accomplished here."
Sergio Romo said about ending the game in the rain: "It's just very fitting the way everything has gone for us this season. The ups and downs, the injuries, the personal issues, whatever. What a ride for us all. It's very, very fitting that it rained right there."
San Francisco had won their first postseason clincher at home in 2002. That too was against St. Louis.
The Cardinals who were in a commanding position after Game 4 would certainly have bitter memories from Monday's loss.
Mike Matheny, the Cardinals' manager said: "It's about the team that's hot, and we went on a cold streak. We got to this point by being that team that was hot and taking advantage of opportunities. But we just couldn't make it happen these last two games."
Matheny was seemingly upset with Carlos Beltran's performance in recent times and in Monday's game in particular describing him as "a laidback guy". He further added, "that's just how he is. That's his makeup."
Beltran, however, was all praises for the Giants giving them credit for their performance. He also highlighted the fact that the Cardinals had made too many mistakes which the Giants took full advantage of.
"If you look at the games we made a lot of mistakes and they didn't make any," Beltran said. "They took advantage of those. They were able to put things together, offense, pitching, defense, and we couldn't do that."
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
