San Francisco – It’s their 10-year reunion, the San Francisco Giants 2012 Championship team was honored before tonight’s first pitch (Giants vs Pittsburg Pirates). Almost 10 years ago, San Francisco beat the Detroit Tigers in a 4-0 series sweep to win the 2012 World Series. It was the second World Series for the Giants in three seasons. The sweep of the Tigers marked the first time since 1990 that a National League team swept an American League team in the World Series.
Pablo Sandoval, hit three home runs in Game 1, was named World Series MVP. Madison Bumgarner pitched a phenomenal game in Game 2 and Ryan Vogelsong followed with a solid performance in Game 3. San Francisco shut out Detroit in both games winning 2-0. Game 4 went extra innings tied at three. Marco Scutaro hit a single that scored in Ryan Theriot and put the Giants up 4-3. Sergio Romo struck out the side to bottom of the 10th for the win.
“Feels amazing to get together with this group of guys,” Angel Pagan said. “That was special, I think that’s one of the reasons why we won this championship because we believed we were good. It’s a mix of emotions being back, I still remember some of the smells of that year.
This organization remembers what we did, they take care of us and appreciate us. That’s what makes coming back so special. What we did in 2012 was very special, facing six elimination games and sweeping the Tigers. We refused to lose one game, we believed in ourselves and we believed in each other.”
In 2012 San Francisco finished the regular season in first place (94-68) bringing home the National League West pennant to advance to the Postseason. Facing elimination against the Cincinnati Reds (3-2) in the NL Division Series, they advanced to the NL Championship Series where they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals (4-3). In the World Series they swept the Detroit Tigers (4-0) to claim their second World Series title in three years. The streak of six straight elimination games won tied a Major League record.
Former manager Bruce Bochy said of his 2012 World Championship Team,
“I think you have to look at the resilience of the 2012 team, the never-say-die group that had their backs against the wall. Six different times they faced elimination in the playoffs to win those games to keep going. That would be the overarching theme of the 2012 club: heart, determination and the resilience that team had to play with.”
Game 4 Pagan hit the first leadoff home run in Giants postseason history, Gregor Blanco and Sandoval also hit home runs later in the game for a 8-3 victory that evened the series at 2-2. This wasn’t just any comeback as San Francisco has faced many games were they had to rally back for a win. Buster Posey hit a grand slam, the third in Giants postseason history in a deciding Game 5 to beat the Cincinnati Reds to move on to the LCS.
“I absolutely think our chemistry played a big part in winning the World Series,” said Matt Cain. “I think the guys enjoyed being around each other really helped us out because it was a difficult to be around us if you didn’t enjoy playing good baseball. We wanted to be here, we wanted to come to the field, we enjoyed learning from each other. So, it speaks a lot for the front office to be able to stick guys together and that we meshed really well.”
“It’s kind of funny,” said current player Brandon Belt. “It’s kind of cool. Ten years ago, we were on a World Series team, and we’re still hanging around playing baseball. And we’re still playing for the same team. It seems so long ago.”
Belt and Brandon Crawford are still currently active on the Giants roster. Both Belt and Crawford were on the 2012 World Series team. Crawford made his MLB debut with the team on May 26, 2011. Belt was invited to Spring Training for the Giants in 2011 and made his MLB debt March 30, 2011.
Photo by SFGiants Twitter
