Walking off in the 10th to happily end the drama

Well, it's never easy for the Giants and their fans. I take that back. Game one in St. Louis was quite painless, a 3-0 win behind great pitching by Ace Madison Bumgarner. Game two was as my friend Mary Ann described it, "a heart attack in the making," with the home team winning it with a walk off homer in the ninth. Today, the sentimental favorite, 39 year old Tim Hudson was pitching in his first Championship Series after 16 years in the majors. He took the mound with a comfortable 4-0 lead after his counterpart John Lackey gave up four hits. A single to Buster Posey, a single to Pablo Sandoval, a double to Hunter Pence who recorded his first RBI in the playoffs, a walk to Brandon Belt and the clincher, a double to Travis Ishikawa who collected three RBI's as Panda, Pence and Belt all came home to make it the biggest first inning in a postseason game since the 1912 World Series. At this point, the fans were on their feet at AT&T Park and we were all feeling pretty good. I was updating game results to my friends hard at work without TV's and to those traveling around the world--Ray.  Just as we were all relaxing, the Cardinals struck back in the fourth with two runs cutting the Giants lead to 4-2. In the sixth, the Cards added another run to trim the lead to one

Huddy was pitching well with good command and got out of trouble numerous times with 5 strikeouts, but in the seventh, with one out, center fielder Randal Grichuk's solo homer tied the game and sent the veteran to the dugout. No problem. This time the bullpen did it's job. First Jeremy Affeldt, then Santiago Casilla,then Sergio Romo who got the win. But the Cards' bullpen was also effective retiring 16 consecutive Giants. Until the bottom of the 10th with reliever Randy Chaote facing the bottom of the lineup, which has been struggling. Brandon Crawford took the walk. Juan Perez who came in for Ishikawa was up to bunt but after missing twice he instead regrouped and with two strikes recorded a nice hit. Gregor Blanco who was hitless was supposed to bunt the runners over with no outs. Blanco's bunt was picked up by Choate who threw wide of first base and the ball rolled past the diving first baseman. In comes Crawford and the celebration begins.... Giants fans can breathe again. Nothing like torture in the playoffs, but all is good when the orange and black lead the series 2-1 with two more home games. Ryan Vogelson gets the ball tomorrow and Mad Bum can clinch the series at home Thursday. But that's jumping the gun, and if the past two games are any indication, there is still much torture to endure.