Giants' bench making their mark in the World Series
SAN FRANCISCO – Manager Bruce Bochy affectionately calls his San Francisco Giants players "cockroaches'' for their refusal to be vanquished.
If he's looking for a term to describe his pesky backups, "fire ants'' may fit the bill.
They've sure helped ruin the Kansas City Royals' party.
Bench players like rookies Matt Duffy and Juan Perez, along with veteran infielder Joaquin Arias, have provided key contributions during the postseason, including the rally-starting hits that launched the Giants' comeback from a three-run deficit in their 11-4 victory in Saturday's Game 4 of the World Series.
Down 2-1 in the series, the Giants' prospects for claiming a third championship in five years were looking dim when Duffy stepped up to the plate as a pinch-hitter leading off the third. The Royals had scored four runs in the top half to stun the boisterous sellout crowd, and with three more shutout innings they'd be able to call on their suffocating relievers.
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Duffy, who was playing at Class AA in late July, calmly delivered the first postseason hit of his career, a line-drive single off starter Jason Vargas. Duffy came around to score on a Buster Posey single to trim the deficit to 4-2 and ignite the Giants.
"It seemed like it changed the momentum and the confidence of the club,'' Bochy said of that third-inning run. "You give up four runs and now you're down 4-1, so you come right back and you get a run. You punch back a little bit, and that's always important in this game.''
Two innings later, it was Arias' turn to get the offense going, also as a pinch-hitter. His broken-bat single sparked a three-run rally as the Giants snapped a 4-4 tie on the way to a 16-hit outburst, the biggest in a World Series game since 2007.
In addition, the Giants got hits from 11 different players, setting a Series record for a National League team.
"I look at the pinch-hitters that got us going in that game,'' Bochy said. "Those are the igniters that seemed like it got us rolling. That's what the bench does. It takes contributions from everybody.''
Duffy's single was the Giants' first hit of the game, and perhaps not as big a surprise as it might seem. The lithe infielder won the Class AA Eastern League batting title with a .332 average this season and went 6-for-15 (.400) as a pinch-hitter after his call-up.
Duffy, who scored the tying run in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series by scampering from second on a wild pitch, said the pinch-hitting experience helped him get ready for his postseason role, though perhaps not as much as being exposed to the AT&T Park crowd on a daily basis.
"The crowd here is so consistently awesome throughout the year, that kind of helps transitioning into the playoffs,'' he said, adding that he shed any butterflies on the way to the plate. "The stadium's so loud that it's quiet. That's the best way I can describe it. I really don't remember hearing anything at all.''
Perez, who got a rare start against the left-handed Vargas on Saturday, tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the fifth and later made a nice running catch in left field.
Bochy had pondered starting power-hitting Michael Morse in left field but opted instead for Perez, an excellent defender who runs well but has a suspect bat and spent half the season at Class AAA Fresno. Perez was a factor as well in the NLCS, with a 10th-inning single in Game 3 and a walk that started a rally in Game 4.
"I haven't had a lot of opportunities, but I have to know how to take advantage of them and provide my contribution, however big or small it might be,'' Perez said. "Bochy gives me the opportunity to play defense and he knows that whenever a fly ball is hit in my direction, there's a very good chance I'm going to catch it.''
GALLERY: WORLD SERIES -- GIANTS vs. ROYALS
