SAN FRANCISCO — Down three runs and in danger of getting pushed to the World Series brink, Pablo Sandoval and the San Francisco Giants raised up some Panda-monium.
Sandoval’s single set up the tying run in the fifth inning and the 2012 Series MVP followed with a go-ahead, two-run single in the sixth that sent the Giants surging past the Kansas City Royals 11-4 Saturday night at pulsating AT&T Park.
Hunter Pence, eyes ablaze, had three hits, three RBIs and a nifty sliding catch in the ninth inning, and Joe Panik hit a two-run double in a four-run seventh. San Francisco piled on 16 hits in a marathon of exactly 4 hours.
“We never give up, that’s the thing,” Sandoval said. “We’ve been doing it all year in these situations. We know how that feels.”
The Series is tied at two games apiece, ensuring the title will be decided at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium next week.
Madison Bumgarner tries to put the Giants ahead Sunday night when he starts against Royals ace James Shields in a rematch of the opener, won by the Giants 7-1.
“This was a great ballgame, I thought, especially the way we came back,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “So I enjoyed it.”
Showcasing baseball at its exciting best, the game included a sprawling catch by Royals center fielder Jarrod Dyson that left a pair of divots, and the first use of expanded video review in Series history — which became a turning point. Jeff Kellogg’s safe call at second base was upheld on catcher Salvador Perez’s pickoff attempt of Joaquin Arias, helping the Giants build the pivotal rally.
Four fans in the first row near the Giants dugout wore giant — of course — white panda heads as they cheered on Sandoval, nicknamed Kung Fu Panda and a veteran of the team’s World Series titles in 2010 and ‘12. The switch-hitter batted just .199 right-handed during the regular season but came up with his first two-hit game from that side of the plate since Aug. 25, emphatically tossing his bat after lining a single to center that put the Giants ahead.
“Clutch hitter,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I thought we had the situation right in the palm of our hand.”
Lost in the torrent of runs was the earlier fit of pique by Bochy, who threw his hat to the dugout floor when his infielders botched a third-inning grounder. The mood was different by the eighth, when former Journey singer Steve Perry sprinted to the front row of the second deck behind home plate and led the crowd of 43,066 in a sing-along of “When the Lights Go Down in the City.”
The outlook seemed far different in the third inning, when ominous, dark clouds formed over the bayside ballpark, and the Royals burst ahead 4-1 against Ryan Vogelsong with the help of the botched grounder. Orange-clad fans quieted, and there even were scattered boos.
But Yusmiero Petit settled the NL champions with three innings of scoreless, two-hit relief to improve to 3-0 in the postseason, and 11 different Giants had hits, including three of 10 in the No. 9 spot; Petit’s single made him the first Giants reliever to get a Series hit in 78 years.
Yost stayed with starter Jason Vargas into the fifth, removing him after Panik’s leadoff double. Royals relievers had been 7-0 in the postseason and in Game 3 pitched four hitless innings to preserve a 3-2 win.
But Yost couldn’t get to his HDH triad of hard-throwing relievers: Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland.
Jason Frasor and Danny Duffy combined to allow the tying run in a two-run fifth. And Brandon Finnegan, the first player to appear in the College World Series and World Series in the same year, allowed Sandoval’s two-run single and Brandon Belt’s RBI’s single in the sixth.
There was intermittent light rain in the early innings. Pence’s RBI forceout in the first gave the Giants a short-lived lead.
Kansas City went ahead with a two-out four-run rally in the third with the help of two infield hits that gave the Royals 18 in the postseason, matching the total of all other teams combined. Eric Hosmer hit a slow tapper to the right side. Belt ranged far off first base to field it, and quickly looked to see if he could get a forceout at second.
With no play there, Belt whirled around and tried to toss to Vogelsong. But the pitcher didn’t get to the bag cleanly, messed up his footwork and had no chance to prevent Hosmer from reaching with a tying single.
Bochy slammed his cap to the dugout floor. Omar Infante grounded a two-run single up the middle for a 3-1 lead, and Perez followed with a bloop single for a 4-1 lead.
“Occasionally I do show emotion in that dugout,” Bochy said. “I just felt for him. I mean, this guy was making great pitches, and we couldn’t get that last out.”
Buster Posey cut the deficit in the bottom half with an RBI single, tying Barry Bonds’ team record of 21 career postseason RBIs. Pence’s RBI single in the fifth caused Frasor to throw up both arms in frustration, Sandoval singled Pence to third and Juan Perez’s sacrifice fly made it 4-all.
“Oh, man, somewhere inside of me secretly I had hoped that it would go seven games for the excitement and the thrill of it,” Yost said. “Sure looks that way.”
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