Giants win World Series in sweep over Tigers

DETROIT, Michigan, United States (UPDATED) – The San Francisco Giants captured the 108th World Series by beating Detroit 4-3 in 10 innings Sunday, October 28 (Monday, October 29 in Manila) to complete a four-game sweep of Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven championship finals.

Ryan Theriot scored the game-winning run for the Giants by hitting a single to right field, advancing to second base on Brandon Crawford’s sacrifice bunt and racing home on a two-out single by Marco Scutaro.

Giants relief ace Sergio Romo entered in the bottom half of the 10th and struck out leadoff hitter Austin Jackson, pinch hitter Don Kelly and Tiger slugger Miguel Cabrera to complete the triumph and touch off a celebration.

It was the second title in three seasons for the Giants, who beat Texas in the 2010 World Series, and the club’s seventh all-time World Series crown. The first five came before the team moved from New York to San Francisco in 1958.

San Francisco became the 21st team to capture the throne in a sweep and kept the Tigers searching for their first World Series crown since 1984.

The Giants were often on the brink of elimination in the playoffs, winning the last three games of their first post-season series against Cincinnati then taking the last three against St. Louis to oust the 2011 World Series winners.

Trailing in the playoffs

A cold and windy night turned damp when rain arrived in the fifth inning and the pitching skill that had dominated the previous two games began to wither.

With San Francisco trailing for the first time in the World Series, Buster Posey blasted an off-speed offering from Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer into the left-field stands for a two-run homer that gave the Giants a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning.

Scutaro had led off the sixth with an infield single down the third base line and Posey made it pay off with his blast just inside the foul pole to put Detroit behind once more.

But Delmon Young answered for the Tigers in the home half of the sixth by smashing the first pitch he saw from Giants starter Matt Cain into the right-field stands for a solo homer to equalize at 3-3.

Detroit second baseman Omar Infante suffered a broken left hand when he was hit by a fastball from Giants relief pitcher Santiago Casilla in the ninth inning and was pulled from the lineup in favor of reserve Danny Worth.

Cabrera, the star slugger who only had been hitting 2-for-9 in the World Series, had smacked a two-run homer in the third inning to give the Tigers a 2-1 advantage and end a run of 20 scoreless innings for Detroit.

San Francisco had not trailed in 56 playoff innings, winning the last three games of the National League finals and the first three World Series games by a combined run total of 32-4.

That post-season streak without trailing was the second-longest run in major league history, behind only a 60-inning stretch by the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

San Francisco took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Hunter Pence bounced the ball over the center-field wall for a ground rule double and scored when Brandon Belt, who had been 0-for-10 in the Series, tripled to right field. – Jim Slater, Agence France-Presse