Unsung Heroes Power Up in Time to Launch Giants Into World Series

The fact that Travis Ishikawa, a no-name journeyman first baseman who was released by the Pittsburgh Pirates in early April and spent nearly all of 2014 at Triple-A, has been starting in left field for the San Francisco Giants this month is almost as insane as it is silly.

The fact that Ishikawa hit a ninth-inning, walk-off, series-clinching, three-run home run to propel San Francisco over the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3, in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, thus sending the Giants to their third World Series in five years, is almost as poetic as it is unbelievable.

That's about as adjective-laden as a home run can get, but it was worth every one of 'em.

YEAR	SERIES	PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT
1976	ALCS	Chris Chambliss	Yankees	Royals
2003	ALCS	Aaron Boone	Yankees	Red Sox
2006	ALCS	Magglio Ordonez	Tigers	Athletics
2014	NLCS	Travis Ishikawa	Giants	Cardinals

"I want to thank this organization, this is the best organization I've ever played for," Ishikawa said in his on-field interview after the game. "They gave me a chance. They stuck me in the outfield, and I'd never even played there before."

What's more, the 31-year-old Ishikawa—whose misplay of a catchable fly ball in left in the third inning was responsible for the game's first run—wasn't the only unsung hero who found his power stroke at just the right time in Thursday's win.

For a club that hadn't hit one out since—get this—Brandon Belt's game-winner in the 18th inning of Game 2 of the NL Division Series, the Giants got two other big bombs from unlikely sources.

Joe Panik—a baby-faced, 23-year-old rookie who had hit exactly one homer since debuting in late May—got San Francisco on the board, 2-1, with a two-out, two-run shot in the bottom of the third off Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright that hugged the right field line.

"We saved the best for last," Panik said on the broadcast afterward when asked to explain Thursday's home run binge.

And in the eighth, Mike Morse—the slugging outfielder who had missed all but one game in September and was left off the NLDS roster because of an oblique injury—evoked memories of Kirk Gibson by coming off the bench to crack a solo homer to tie the game at 3-3.

That one, which set the stage for Ishikawa's heroics in the bottom of the ninth, came against righty reliever Pat Neshek, who held same-side hitters to a .442 OPS with two homers in 156 plate appearances in the regular season.

Put another way: After six straight games without hitting a home run, the Giants hit three, all from unexpected sources, which accounted for all six of their runs in Game 5.

All of that power helped back ace—and NLCS MVP—Madison Bumgarner, who retired the final 13 batters he faced and for the series allowed just three earned runs on nine hits in 15.2 innings with a 12-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

"I almost had to pinch myself," Morse said in a postgame interview of his pinch-hit, tying knock. "This has been an incredible journey, and I don't want it to end."

And it won't. As the NL champs for the third straight even-numbered year after they won it all in 2010 and 2012, the Giants will move on and try to do it again by taking on the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.

That means the 2014 Fall Classic will be only the second ever in which both participants are wild-card winners.

Come Tuesday in Kansas City, that should make for quite a matchup between two teams that appeared to be equally unlikely to make it this far back when the playoffs began almost three weeks ago.

But as Giants general manager Brian Sabean said of his club during the trophy presentation after clinching the NL pennant with the win in Game 5, "This team is a bunch of cockroaches—you can't get just one of them, you have to get 'em all."

And as Thursday night—not to mention, so very much of this October so far—proved yet again, when it comes to the San Francisco Giants winning in the postseason in an even-numbered year, there is no such thing as unlikely.

Just ask Travis Ishikawa.

Statistics are accurate through Oct. 16 and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

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