Nightengale: Giants refuse to die, stun Royals
SAN FRANCISCO -- Those loveable little, pesky cockroaches, you just can't kill 'em.
The Kansas City Royals had them trapped.
They emptied their can of pesticide.
The Royals had them coughing choking and watching them suffocate.
They kept waiting for the San Francisco Giants to die.
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It never happened.
It never does this time of year for the Giants.
The Giants once again are alive, coming back to stun the Royals, 11-4, and tying the World Series at 2-games apiece Saturday in front of a frenzied crowd at AT&T Park.
Yes, we're going back to K.C., turning this into a best-of-three series, with Game 5 scheduled Sunday night with the Giants having October ace Madison Bumgarner on regular rest.
"I don't think we can believe in ourselves any more than we already do already,'' Giants pitcher Jake Peavy says. "That's not being cocky, but it's just the way we feel.
"There's never any panic.
"There's never any knee-jerk reactions.
"I think we showed the fight and character we've played with the length of these playoffs. I don't think it was ever more evident than in how hard we played and fought to get back in that game.''
The Giants trailed 4-1 before they even batted once through the lineup in this one.
They were still down by two runs in the fifth inning, and just six outs away from having to face the Royals' vaunted bullpen, the one which had limited the Giants to an .036 batting average, striking out 10 times in 28 at-bats.
"But you know what,'' says Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt, "we've got a pretty go-to bullpen too.
"Our bullpen is a big reason why we're here too.
"And we got Petey, our MVP.''
The name is Yusmeiro Petit.
A year ago, he was one strike away from throwing a perfect game.
He retired 46 consecutive batters during the regular season this summer, setting a major-league record.
"But what he's done in the postseason,'' Giants catcher Buster Posey says, "tops all of that. He's pitching on the biggest stage, and getting the biggest outs of the season.
"You can't overstate how important he is for us.''
On this night, he may have saved the Giants' season.
He came in trying to keep the Royals from blowing the game open in the fourth inning, yielded just two hits in three shutout innings, and by the time he left, the Giants had a 7-4 lead and on the way to a rout.
It's hard to remember that Ryan Vogelsong even started the game, but thanks to Petit, the Giants won their first World Series game with their starting pitcher going 2 2/3 innings or less since 1923.
Petit became the first pitcher in baseball history to win three games in a single postseason by pitching at least three shutout relief innings, surpassing Sparky Lyle of the 1977 New York Yankees and Bruce Kison of the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates.
Oh yeah, he even got a single himself in his only at-bat.
Not bad for a guy who entered the game with a .049 career batting average, with just five hits in 103 career- at-bats.
"Now, he's batting 1.000 in the World Series,'' Affeldt says. "He's in the record books again.''
If the Giants wind up winning this World Series, perhaps no one will be more responsible than Petit.
Let's see, he pitched six shutout innings in the Giants' 18-inning victory in Game 2 of the National League Division Series over the Washington Nationals.
He pitched three more shutout innings in their clinching game in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
And now, after three more shutout innings, he has faced 45 batters this postseason, and allowed just five baserunners, striking out 13 batters.
"He's not a secret out here,'' Peavy says, "but he may be a secret to the rest of the world.''
Says Petit: "I'm ready for anything. So if (Giants manager Bruce) Bochy gives me the chance, whatever he wants. I'm ready for the moment.''
The moment was huge on this night, with players like Peavy believing that if the Giants had lost the game and gone done 3-1, the Series may have been all but officially over.
Once Petit came in and stopped the bleeding, with the Royals leading, 4-1, the Giants' offense took over.
The Giants, who didn't have a hit the first two innings, wound up with 20 of their next 35 batters reaching base.
They scored one run in the third inning.
Two runs in the fifth inning.
Three runs in the sixth.
And four in the seventh.
They wound up with 16 hits, 12 singles and four doubles, and their No. 9 hitter reached base four times, by four different players.
They sent 24 men to the plate alone in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
"They've very scrappy,'' Royals reliever Danny Duffy says, "but they've got a lot of thump. It's a nasty combination in the postseason.''
The Giants, who had only four hits in their Game 3 defeat -- their fewest since Game 2 of the 1989 World Series -- had hits from 11 different players this night.
Six different players drove in at least one run.
Seven different players scored.
And one player, so sick before the game that he needed an IV, and skipped taking infield, drove in two huge runs with two hits.
Sandoval, after looking horrible in his first at-bats, singled in the fifth inning to set up Juan Perez's sacrifice fly in the fifth inning.
In the sixth, he drove in two runs with a two-out, bases-loaded single.
Both hits were produced batting right-handed.
This, coming from a switch-hitter who batted only .199 while batting right-handed during the year with just 19 RBI.
October has a way of changing a whole lot of things.
When someone asked Sandoval if he considered sitting out of the game, he stared incredulously, not quite believing the question was posed.
"I play,'' Sandoval says, "no matter what. Doesn't matter if I'm sick. I feel good now.
"I want to get another ring.''
Who knows if the Giants will get their third ring in five years, or the Royals will get their first in 29 years, but this wild and crazy Series is shaping into a doozy, one that's looming into a memorable seven-game affair.
"Sure looks that way,'' Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Somewhere inside of me secretly hoped that it would go seven games for the excitement and the thrill of it.''
The Giants, with Bumgarner on the mound for Game 5, and available for Game 7 out of the bullpen, certainly will take their chances.
The Royals, who believe that struggling ace James Shields will return to his regular-season form, love the idea that the title will be decided in Kansas City.
"This whole postseason, as a fan, has been incredible to watch,'' Peavy says. "The games have been exciting as ever. That games that lose have been exciting.
"So when you're in the moment, it's hard to see that maybe you're playing in a series that people will remember and talk about.
"At the end of the day, it's two teams playing extremely hard with a lot of emotion. A lot of passion. A lot of fun. Both ballparks going crazy.
"It's what you live for as a player.''
Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale
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