Bay Day: Giants Win Pennant
Lofton Singles in Bell in 9th in Game 5 as San Francisco Brings Series Home : Giants 2, Cardinals 1
By William Gildea
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 14 -- Be still oh California Earth. The San Francisco Giants won the National League pennant tonight.
The last time they did, the last time there was an all-California World Series, the Earth parted in the form of the earthquake that hit the area before Game 3 of the 1989 Series between Oakland and the Giants at Candlestick Park.
Tonight, the rumbling in the cool air was man-made, by the Giants themselves as they pushed across a ninth-inning run to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1, to win the National League Championship Series by four games to one and set off the vibrations of wildly cheering fans at Pacific Bell Park. In raising their third pennant since moving from New York, the Giants earned the right to play Anaheim in the World Series beginning Saturday in Southern California.
Kenny Lofton delivered a game-winning single off the first pitch from left-handed reliever Steve Kline, brought in by Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa to replace starter Matt Morris, who pitched a powerful game all the way into the ninth only to give up two-out singles to David Bell and Shawon Dunston. La Russa went with the lefty-lefty percentage move and lost as Lofton, a thorn to St. Louis this series, smacked a line drive to right field. The throw toward home from deep in the outfield by J.D. Drew was a lost cause, off-line and way late, as Bell slid belly-first across the plate as teammates stormed the field.
The victory gives the Giants a chance to win their first World Series since 1954, when they were the New York Giants. It was the third one-run game of a heart-stopping weekend of games and ended the season for a Cardinals' team that battled much adversity throughout the summer.
"It's a dream come true," said Giants catcher Benito Santiago, who was named most valuable player of the series.
For a time, it appeared one run might be enough for Morris and the Cardinals. They broke a scoreless deadlock in the seventh when Mike Matheny greeted reliever Felix Rodriguez with a double that ticked the glove of Lofton in right center field. Morris pushed Matheny to third with a bunt on which Rodriguez threw to third. The play was close, but third base umpire Jeff Nelson ruled safe. Fernando Viña followed with a fly ball good for the run.
But the Giants rallied to tie the game in the eighth. Lofton and Rich Aurilia opened the inning with singles, and Morris hit Jeff Kent to fill the bases and bring up Barry Bonds. Bonds couldn't have asked for a better setup, but swung just under a Morris fastball to lift it deep to left for a long fly-ball out.
Lofton scored, and Morris got out of the inning by retiring Santiago on a ground ball.
The game had plenty of other tense moments.
Giants lefty Kirk Rueter, who went the first six innings, held off the Cardinals with runners at the corners and only one out in the third inning, and again with two on and two out in the sixth.
Lofton, who set off a Game 1 bench-clearing mill-around after shouting objection to a high-and-tight pitch, regained the spotlight leading off the Giants' fourth when Morris hit him in the side. An angry Lofton stood at home plate as umpire Tim Welke stepped around in front of him just in case Lofton decided to charge the mound. Lofton homered off Morris in Game 1, but it was reliever Mike Crudale who buzzed him. Meeting again, Morris had a perfect game going when he hit Lofton. After a delay, Lofton moved on down to first base. He had made it over to third when Morris had to bear down and get Bonds, on a fly ball to end the inning.
The first hit Morris allowed, with two out in the fifth, led to an exchange between Giants Manager Dusty Baker and third base umpire Nelson. Bell hit an opposite-field double to right, but as Santiago, who had walked, turned third base he was brushed by Miguel Cairo. Baker wanted interference, which would have meant a sorely needed Giants' run, but Nelson denied him; Santiago already had received the stop sign at third base. That left Rueter to tap back harmlessly to the mound. Steve Palermo, the head of umpires, visited the press box to put his stamp of approval on Nelson's decision.
Morris may -- or may not -- have hit Aurilia in the sixth after Lofton opened the inning with a single. Aurilia flexed his right hand for the Giants' trainer, but if the ball hit Aurilia it appeared more likely to have been his bottom hand on the bat, his left. But Morris escaped the inning, getting Kent on a double play ball and Santiago on an infield out with an intentional walk to Bonds sandwiched between.
Tim Worrell got the victory, finishing up the last 12/3 innings.
And so the World Series is set. The team that might be taking it harder than even the New York Yankees, so accustomed to being there, is the Los Angeles Dodgers.
They have been the lordly team of Southern California, the Angels the stepchild. Now the Dodgers have success stories both north and south of them, teams led by managers who once played for them but never got the chance to manage them, the Giants' Baker and the Angels' Mike Scioscia.
At Pacific Bell Park, the city's long night of partying began with almost the entire sellout crowd remaining for a full hour, standing and cheering.
"Kenny Lofton had a couple of tough days. I thought of pinch-hitting for him," Baker said of the ninth-inning showdown. "But, I thought, that's crazy. And he got the base it. These are a special group of guys."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
