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DETROIT —Smart pitching. Haloti Ngata Black Jersey . Clutch hitting.
Sharp fielding. Plus an MVP Panda. All the right elements for a sweet World
Series sweep for the San Francisco Giants. Nearly knocked out in the playoffs
time and time again, and finally pressed by the Detroit Tigers in Game 4,
Pablo Sandoval and the Giants clinched their second title in three seasons
Sunday night. Marco Scutaro—who else?—delivered one more key hit this
October, a go-ahead single with two outs in the 10th inning that lifted the
Giants to a 4-3 win. “Detroit probably didnt know what it was in for,” Giants
general manager Brian Sabean said. “Our guys had a date with destiny.” On a
night of biting cold, stiff breezes and some rain, 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. “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 didnt stop, and its 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 centre of the diamond at Comerica Park. They built toward this
party all month, winning six elimination games this post-season. In the
clubhouse, they hoisted the trophy, passed it around and shouted the name of
each player who held it. “World Series champions!” Giants outfielder
Hunter Pence hollered. A total team triumph. “When pitching is your strength,
you want a good defence,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That shows up every day.
... Hitting sometimes, it comes and goes. But as long as you can stay in more
games, the better chance you have of winning them, and thats how we play.”
Benched during the 2010 Series, 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. ... Were working hard
to enjoy this moment right now.” Cabrera delivered the first big hit for
Detroit, interrupting San Franciscos 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 Crawfords sacrifice and scored on a shallow single by Scutaro, the
MVP of the NL championship series. Centre-fielder Austin Jackson made a throw
home, to no avail. “Thats what makes it so much special, the way we did it,”
Scutaro said. “Were always against the wall and my team, it just came through
first series, second series and now we sweep the Tigers.” Romo struck out the
side in the bottom of the 10th for his third save of the Series. The Giants
finished the month with seven straight wins and their seventh Series
championship. They handed the Tigers their seventh straight World Series loss
dating to 2006. “Obviously, there was no doubt about it. They swept us,” Tigers
manager Jim Leyland said. “So there was certainly no bad breaks, no fluke.
“Simple, they did better than we did,” he said. “It was freaky. I would have
never guessed we would have swept the Yankees and I would have never guessed the
Giants would have swept us.” The Giants combined for a 1.42 ERA, outscored the
Tigers 16-6 and held them to a .159 batting average. “I think we never found our
confidence at home plate,” Cabrera said. “It was not the same game we played. We
could not find our game in the World Series.” Bristled slumping Tigers slugger
Prince Fielder: “This is not about me. This is about the team.” An NL team won
the title for the third straight season, a run that hadnt occurred in 30 years.
Some find the streak surprising, considering the ALs recent dominance in
interleague play. Yet as every fan knows, the club that pitches best in the
post-season usually prevails. Until the end, the Tigers thought one big hit
could shift the momentum. It was an all-too-familiar October lament—Texas
felt the same way when the Giants throttled it in 2010, and the Tigers knew the
feeling when St. Louis wiped them out in 2006. “For one, we didnt allow doubt to
ever creep in,” Pence said. “You know, the thing that made this team so special
is just playing as a team, caring for each other. We had our backs against the
wall and we knew it wasnt going to be easy. Its not supposed to be.” Howling
winds made it feel much colder than the 44 degrees at gametime. Two wrappers
blew across home plate after leadoff man Angel Pagan struck out, and fly balls
played tricks in the breeze. The Giants started with their pre-game ritual. They
clustered around Pence in the dugout, quickly turning into a bobbing, whooping,
pulsing pack, showering themselves with sunflower seeds. A big league good-luck
charm, Little League style. “That was one of our mottos, and we went out there
to enjoy every minute of it and it was hard earned. Just an incredible,
incredible group of guys that fought for each other,” Pence said. Once again,
San Francisco took an early lead. Pence hit a one-hop drive over the
centre-field fence for a double and Brandon Belt tripled on the next pitch for a
1-0 lead in the second. The next inning, Cabrera gave the Tigers a reason to
think this might be their night. With two outs and a runner on first, Cabrera
lofted an opposite-field fly to right—off the bat, it looked like a routine
out shy of the warning track. But with winds gusting over 25 mph, the ball kept
carrying, Pence kept drifting toward the wall and the crowd kept getting louder.
Just like that, it was gone. Cabreras homer gave Detroit its first lead of the
Series, ended its 20-inning scoreless streak and reaffirmed a pre-game
observation by Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline. “The wind usually blows to right
at this time of year,” Kaline said. In the fourth, Max Scherzer and catcher
Gerald Laird teamed on a strike em out-throw em out double play. Trailing for
the first time since Game 4 of the NL championship series, Posey and the Giants
put a dent in Detroits optimism. Scutaro, who played for the Toronto Blue Jays
in 2008 and 2009, led off the sixth with a single and clapped all the way around
the bases when Posey sent a shot that sailed just inside the left-field foul
pole for a 3-2 lead. Detroit wasnt about to go quietly, however. Young, the ALCS
MVP against the Yankees, made it 3-all with another opposite-field homer to
right, this one a no-doubt drive. Fielder finished 1 for 14 (.071) against the
Giants without an RBI. Minus key hits, the Tigers remained without a title since
1984. All 24 teams to take a 3-0 lead in the World Series have won it all. In
fact, none of those matchups even reached a Game 6. This was the first sweep for
an NL team since Cincinnati in 1990. Working on nine days rest and trying to
extend the Tigers season, Scherzer kept them close into the seventh. Often
recognized for his eyes—one is light blue, the other is brown—hes also
known as a solid post-season pitcher. Ditto-plus for Matt Cain, who was working
on a nearly perfect year. The Giants ace threw a perfect game in June, was the
winning pitcher in the All-Star game in July, beat Cincinnati to clinch the
division series and topped St. Louis in Game 7 of the NL championship series.
After they left, the relievers decided it. Octavio Dotel shouted, “Yeah! Lets
go!” toward his dugout after striking out Posey to end the eighth. In the bottom
half, winning pitcher Jeremy Affeldt got around a leadoff walk when he struck
out Cabrera, a flinching Fielder and Young. Coke returned the favour in the top
of the ninth, fanning the side. With Jose Valverde having lost his closer role
during a shaky month, Coke stayed in for the 10th and faltered. The Giants
became the first champion that hit the fewest home runs in the majors since St.
Louis in 1982. Sandovals three drives in Game 1 started San Franciscos romp, and
its dominant pitching took over from there. The parade to a sweep masked the
problems San Francisco overcame to get this far. Closer Brian Wilson pitched
only two innings before an elbow injury ended his year. All-Star game MVP
Melky Cabrera was suspended 50 games for a positive testosterone test, and not
welcomed back when the ban ended. Two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum
struggled and wound up in the bullpen. Swept in a three-game set at Arizona to
start the season, the Giants were floundering under .500 in mid-May. They soon
hit their stride and, boosted by trade deadline deals for Scutaro and Pence,
passed the Dodgers in the NL West for good in late August and posted 94 wins.
Getting past Cincinnati and St. Louis in the playoffs presented challenges. Down
2-0 in the best-of-five division series, they rallied for three straight
victories in Cincinnati. Trailing the defending champion Cardinals 3-1 in the
NLCS, they again took three in a row to advance, clinching in a driving
rainstorm. Six elimination games, six wins. Facing the Tigers, San Francisco
proved it could play with a lead, too. The Giants became the first NL team since
the Big Red Machine in the mid-1970s to win two titles in a three-year span.
Shut out for 56 years—Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds never won
it all—their self-described “misfits” captured that elusive crown in 2010.
The Tigers flop finished off a season in which Cabrera became baseballs first
Triple Crown winner since 1967. Detroit overtook the White Sox in the final week
to win the AL Central and wound up 88-74, the ALs seventh-best record. NOTES:
Detroit 2B Omar Infante broke his left hand when he was hit by a pitch from
Santiago Casilla in the ninth. ... Theriot and Laird had a nice reunion at the
plate. They were St. Louis teammates last year when the Cardinals won the title.
... Laird started after Alex Avila was scratched. Avilas right arm was still
sore after being hit by a foul tip in the opener. ... Ann Romney, wife of
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was at the game. ... Cabrera has
reached base in all 24 of his post-season games with Detroit. ... Only two of
the last nine World Series have gone longer than five games. Justin Tucker Jersey . The biggest winner of
Super Bowl week so far may be retired NFLer and former Giant David Tyree, whose
against-the-helmet catch during the Giants game-winning drive at Super Bowl XLII
will be on constant loop this week. Dennis Pitta Jersey . The Jays won Thursays
opener by a 5-0 count and then followed that up with a 4-0 decision on Friday.
Trying to get back into the win column for the Blue Jays tonight is Kyle Drabek.
Since starting off 2012 with back-to-back wins at home against Boston and
Baltimore, the 24-year made it through just six innings in his second straight
appearance on Monday, giving up two runs on five hits and a pair of walks, while
fanning a season-best eight batters in a 4-1 setback to Texas. http://www.proshopbaltimoreravens.com/ray-rice-jerseys
.C. —Admirers of Sarah Burke gathered in Whistler, B. Bernard Pierce Jersey . Another Canadian,
Phylicia George, will be joining her, after she ripped off a personal-best time
of her own in the third and final heat to clinch one of the two next-best time
scores to advance to the final. Michael Oher Jersey . McCoy started at second
base for Saturdays game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Nix played second base in
Fridays 6-4, 11-inning win over the Rays but came out of the game in the second
inning after Sean Rodriguez slid into him in breaking up a double play.Carson,
CA (Sports Network) – Brian Ching and Clint Dempsey each had two goals and the
United States mens national team opened 2010 World Cup qualifying with an 8-0
win over Barbados on Sunday. Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan and Eddie Johnson
also scored, and an own goal accounted for the other U.S. goal at The Home Depot
Center. The U.S. took a commanding lead in the second round series, which
consists of a home-and-away series. The next leg is June 22 at 3 p. Torrey Smith Womens Jersey. m. (ET) in
Barbados. Dempsey opened the scoring just 54 seconds into the first leg and
added another goal during the United States five-goal second half. Ching got his
first goal off a lucky deflection and capped the scoring with just a minute
remaining. Goalie Brad Guzan started in place of injured Tim Howard, who missed
the match with a back strain, but didnt have to make a single save for the U.S.
’ ’ ’