Giants reach World Series with 3-2 win over Phils

PHILADELPHIA - The San Francisco Giants, a team its own manager called a "Dirty Dozen" of castoffs and misfits, are headed to the World Series for the fourth time since the franchise moved from the Polo Grounds in 1958. Now they'll try to win it for the first time.

They earned the right to play the Texas Rangers last night by beating the defending National League champion Phillies, 3-2, in NLCS Game 6 with a stifling bullpen effort and a tiebreaking homer by Juan Uribe, who went deep off Ryan Madson with two outs in the eighth.

Uribe, who won Game 4 with a walk-off sacrifice fly, smacked Madson's first pitch. As soon as he connected, he flipped his bat, arm raised, but the ball barely cleared the high wall in rightfield, landing in the first row.

With runners at first and second and two outs in the ninth, on a 3-and-2 pitch, Giants closer Brian Wilson caught Ryan Howard looking at a 92-mph slider to end the game. A trip to the World Series? Said Wilson, "Sounds delicious to me.''

"To be the best, you've got to beat the best, and that's what we did,'' manager Bruce Bochy said. "We get contributions from everybody. This is not a team that has one guy that carries them. It took 25 guys to do this.''

"Their personality they wear on their sleeves, but they play their butts off on the field,'' GM Brian Sabean said. "They love the game and they respect the game. It's like the United Nations in there. They all come together for a common goal."

Cody Ross was named the MVP of the series, the fourth player in Giants history to do so along with Jeffrey Leonard, Will Clark and Benito Santiago.

The Giants have never won a world championship since moving to San Francisco for the 1958 season; they last won in 1954, when they played in New York.

The Rangers have never even been to the World Series since moving from Washington to Texas for the 1972 season. Their predecessor, the second version of the Senators, never did it, either, after being created in 1961.

The Giants called on Tim Lincecum to pitch the eighth inning, but he was pulled after giving up a pair of one-out singles. Next was Wilson, and he got lucky when Carlos Ruiz drilled a line drive directly at first baseman Aubrey Huff, who tossed over to second for the inning-ending double play.

Roy Oswalt allowed nine hits and two runs in six innings, but the Phillies' vaunted offense failed them yet again. They went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, including Howard's strikeout. The Phillies finished 8-for-46 in the NLCS. In this postseason, the Phillies were 13-for-69 in those situations.

Said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel: "We had chances and we couldn't cash in on them. We couldn't get the big hit. The team that gets the big hit or makes the big play late in the game, that's usually the team that wins."

Shortly before Game 6, with the Phillies facing elimination, Manuel publicly guaranteed a Game 7 would take place Sunday night. The Phillies are one of six teams to never play a Game 7, along with the Rockies, Nationals/Expos, Rangers, Padres and Mariners. "We're going to get to tomorrow," he had said. "I don't want to say 'if we get there,' because we are going to get there."

It sure looked that way early as the Phillies raced to a 2-0 lead against Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez in the first inning. A one-out walk to Placido Polanco set up Chase Utley's run-scoring double, and Utley scored on Jayson Werth's sacrifice fly.

But the Giants clawed back to tie the score in the top of the third against Oswalt, who allowed one run in eight innings in Game 2. Shane Victorino nearly made a spectacular Willie Mays-type catch at the track, but bobbled the ball at the wall to put runners at first and second.

After a sacrifice bunt, Huff's single drove in one run before Victorino cut down Andres Torres at the plate. But Huff took second on the throw, and that turned out to be big when Polanco's throwing error allowed him to score the tying run on Buster Posey's slow roller.

Sanchez failed to survive the third inning, but he didn't leave without a fight - or at least trying to start one.

The last pitch he threw nailed Utley square between the shoulder blades, and on his way to first base, Utley scooped up the ball and flipped it back toward the mound.

Sanchez, who watched him the whole time, shouted toward Utley. Sanchez appeared to say something along the lines of "that's --!" Once Utley got to first base, he held up his hands and replied, "What's -- ?" A moment later, Utley dismissed him with a wave, and that's when Sanchez started moving toward first base.

Before he could get very far, however, Carlos Ruiz - still wearing his chest protector - led a procession of Phillies from the dugout, and things quickly spiraled out of control from there. With the umpiring crew rushing to keep the players apart, both bullpens emptied, but no punches were thrown and order was restored after a few minutes.

A day earlier, Manuel was asked about the rising tension between the two clubs. In Game 5, Roy Halladay got into a brief exchange with former Phillie Pat Burrell, and there was an increased amount of "chirping" from the benches.

Utley is no stranger to gamesmanship, and he knew exactly what he was doing in harassing Sanchez.

"As a matter of fact, I like that in games," Manuel said before the game. "But also I expect our guys to respond. I think that's all part of it. That's being competitive. And that shows how much they want to win and get after it. It's all part of it."

Sanchez, as in his Game 2 start, appeared to be in self-destruct mode from the very first inning. This time he wasn't able to overcome his early frustration, and the bench-clearing incident sealed his fate.

In that third inning, the Phillies had runners at first and third with none out when Bochy replaced Sanchez with Jeremy Affeldt. He whiffed Howard, who failed to hit a home run or drive in a run in the series, and then retired the side in order to preserve the 2-2 tie.