The Giants Can't Stop Winning Weird

After a 6-4 win keyed by another one of those Giants rallies that just sort of happen, San Francisco finds itself a game away from the World Series, and completely unable to explain it.

"Anybody can score on base hits," Tim Hudson joked.

Six of the 18 Giants runners who've come around to score this series had originally reached base on something other than a hit. Going back a bit further, 12 of the Giants' last 22 runs have been knocked in by something other than a hit. " When is the horseshoe going to fall out?" one Nationals player asked, and more than a few Cardinals players are probably wondering.

The fateful sixth inning was microcosmic of this postseason run. Down two, a walk, a single, and a bunt put the tying runs in scoring position. That's when the Giants engaged their "hit it to Matt Adams" strategy.

On two consecutive grounders, Adams awkwardly short-hopped a throw home attempting to nail the speedy Juan Perez, then threw wide to second in an attempt to turn an inning-ending double play.

Reporters naturally converged on Adams's locker after the game, but there's only so many ways to say "I made two bad throws."

"The play at home, there's a fast runner at third and I was going in on the ball and threw on the run," Adams said. "Just should've made the throw, though. The second one, I should've just touched first and checked home."

Buster Posey, who capped off the sixth with an RBI single, said the Giants' success has been due to "putting pressure on the defense." Adams described the Giants as a team that "capitalizes on mistakes." Those are pretty standard baseball platitudes, and all they really point to is a team with some speed that can take pitches. San Francisco has been able to put guys on and take the extra base when it's on offer, and that's been enough to compensate for being outhomered 6-0 this series. So maybe more of the breaks have gone their way than the Cardinals', sure, but what's weird about a team on the verge of a pennant getting there with the help of some luck? Nothing more normal in baseball than that.