Urban: Nothing impossible for these Giants

June 1, 2011
URBAN ARCHIVEGIANTS PAGEGIANTS VIDEOMychael UrbanCSNBayArea.com

There was a little bit of everything in the Giants' 7-5 victory in 11 innings Wednesday in St. Louis, where San Francisco responded time and again to dire straits.Despite getting great early work from their ace, Tim Lincecum, the Giants found themselves in a 3-0 hole after a series of strange plays that made the game seem more like pinball than baseball.But out of nowhere, after being shut down by Jake Westbrook all night, the defending champs woke up their bats with a three-run rally in the sixth that took The Freak off the hook.
RECAP: Schierholtz the hero; Giants beat Cards in 11
An inning later, an individual comeback story played out, with Aubrey Huff, expected to sit this one out but forced to play because Brandon Belt is out with a sore wrist, launching a sigh-of-relief solo shot to put Lincecum in position for the win. After two miserable months, Huff needed a positive in the first game of June and got it in a huge way.Yet Lincecum made his only big mistake in the bottom of the seventh, flipping an 89-mph cement mixer down Main Street that Giants killer Allen Craig pummeled to give St. Louis the lead right back.URBAN: Giants vs. Cardinals game slideshow
It was desperation time, to be sure, but these Giants have been here so many time before -- and it showed. Nate Schierholtz's last-gasp, two-out, two-strike single tied the game in the top of the ninth, and two innings later he came through again, followed by another big knock from rookie shortstop Brandon Crawford that provided the final margin.If that inning alone didn't lock Schierholtz and Crawford into their respective positions for a decent spell, nothing will.Without their heroics, the game would have been over long before the banks of lights went out with Brian Wilson one out from closing things out. "That's a first for me," Schierholtz said. "It went from big-league lights to minor-league lights."Once power was restored, it took all of one pitch for Wilson to take care of business and give the Giants that big-league feeling that only comes with an improbable victory.Improbable, not impossible. The Giants stopped believing anything is impossible a long time ago.