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San Francisco Giants: 1st NL Pennant
The Giants Rise. The Moment Finds Them.
By Mike Lupica
There are nights in baseball when the moment finds the team, and the team doesn’t blink. Not once. Not when the ghosts of October are whispering. Not when the pressure can bend even the best. And Sunday in San Francisco, in a ballpark where history always seems like it’s just around the corner, the Giants didn’t blink.
They swung.
They pitched.
They won.
The Giants beat the Pirates, 7–1, in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, and if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when a team grabs destiny by the collar and doesn’t let go, this was it.
Nate Moser didn’t just hit. He delivered. He batted .529 in the series, got on base more than half the time, and turned tough at-bats into tougher outs. In Game 7, he had four more hits. And somehow he still didn’t feel like the loudest part of the night. That’s how good the Giants were.
Let’s talk about Vinny Luevanos. He didn’t need a stage. He became the stage. Seven innings, seven hits, one run, and complete command when the entire season was riding on his arm. There was no panic. Just poise.
But this wasn’t just about the stars. This was a total-team masterpiece, one where guys like A. Baca and J. Edwards stepped into the moment like they’d been rehearsing their whole lives. Baca had two extra-base hits. Edwards drove in four. You want a blueprint for winning baseball? It’s that: put the spotlight on one guy, and he’ll shine. Put it on the whole lineup, and they blind you.
The Pirates? They scored in the top of the first, and then it was like someone turned off the lights. Seven hits, zero answers. San Francisco pitching, San Francisco defense, San Francisco confidence—they all just tightened the screws inning by inning. Luevanos to Martin to the handshake line. Game over.
This was a Giants team that had never been to a World Series before. Now they go, and they do it not as a surprise, but as a story. A team that refused to let its season end. A team that showed up when it mattered most.
Now it’s on to Houston. On to the next test. The Astros may have history. The Giants? They just made some.
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