The San Francisco Giants are up 3-1 against the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series and are one win away from a trip to the World Series.
If I would have told you in March that this would be reality, you would have looked at me and laughed. You might have thought the Giants picked up a big time hitter while trading away Madison Bumgarner or Jonathan Sanchez.
Well, there is no big hitter, but the pitching got even better.
It was not one move that made this team what it is but several. It was not talent that got this team where it is but heart. This team has been called misfits, scrubs and castoffs.
The one thing they all have in common is the drive to win.
None of the players the Giants picked up are world beaters by any stretch.
Cody Ross, Pat Burrell, Javier Lopez, Mike Fontenot, Jose Guillen. All have contributed and without even one of them, the Giants are not where they are right now.
Remember Fontenot’s broken bat flair against the Dodgers? Do you remember Jose Guillen’s six-RBI game?
Cody Ross didn’t turn it on until the playoffs and has turned into “The Boss.”
The Giants are the epitome of the word “team.” They embody all that kids are taught from their t-ball days to their first American Legion game.
Root for each other, be ready when called upon, get the runner over, never quit.
They never quit.
Not even during the Bonds era can I remember a Giants team that was as resilient as these Giants. They fall behind and come back. They give up a lead and get it back. Game 4 was proof of this.
Not only are they doing this but they are doing it against the next best pitching staff to theirs.
Almost all Giants fans knew going into March, if we made it to the playoffs they would be dangerous. But many also believed if they made it, the offense would suffer, and they would get ousted fairly quickly.
The offense has been just good enough to win ball games but more importantly, this is the best pitching staff in Giants history. It is what will carry them deeper into October baseball.
With some changes to the lineup and the maturation of some home grown players, the Giants have proven the world wrong. They have matured faster than many believed. They have proven me wrong and I couldn’t be happier.
I said after a miserable August, they wouldn’t make the playoffs. They did.
I said they would beat the Braves but fall to the Phillies in six games. That is no longer a mathematical possibility.
This team has built the season on proving everybody wrong. They are a bunch of misfits. Hell, they are a sandlot team. Scrappy, gritty, carefree and with plenty of personality.
It is apparent they have fun which is what baseball should be. They make you want to root for them. You want them to succeed. They are the ultimate underdog ready to eliminate the biggest dog in the yard.
They are ready to do something that has not happened in San Francisco—bring a World Series title home.
Impossible? No.
Improbable? I thought so.
At this stage, this team is ready for the unforeseen. Six wins down, five to go.
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