By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Travis Ishikawa was playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates when the 2014 season began and now with one swing of the bat, he helped the San Francisco Giants obtain their goal.

Ishikawa hit a three-run walk-off home run off of Michael Wacha in the bottom of the ninth inning to help the Giants defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 to win their third National League Championship in the past five years.

He is the fourth player in major league history and first in NL history to hit a walk-off home run to send his team to the World Series.

Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers did it in 2006 against Huston Street of the Oakland A’s, three years earlier, Aaron Boone of the New York Yankees did it against the Boston Red Sox and Chris Chambliss did it for the New York Yankees off of Mark Littell of the Kansas City Royals in 1976.

Wacha cane on for the first time in the postseason, and promptly gave up a single to Pablo Sandoval, and then retired Hunter Pence on a fly out, then walked Brandon Belt and then Ishikawa hit one into the right field seats.

Michael Morse was the hero just one inning earlier, as he hit a game-tying solo home run off of Pat Neshek that sent the sellout crowd of 43,217 into an absolute frenzy.

After Morse hit the home run that tied up the game, Bruce Bochy brought in Santiago Casilla; however he gave up a single and two walks to load the bases and Bochy went to the bullpen again.

Bochy brought on veteran Jeremy Affeldt, and he faced just batter and he retired Oscar Taveras on a ground ball back to Affeldt, who ran to the base for the final out of the inning.

Madison Bumgarner went seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out five as he did not fare in the decision.

Adam Wainwright, who dropped the opener of the NLCS at Busch Stadium went seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits, while walking two and striking out seven, as he did not fare in the decision.

Jon Jay gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, as he hit a scorching double over the head of Travis Ishikawa to score Tony Cruz from second base.

Cruz led off the frame with a walk against Bumgarner, then advanced to second base on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Adam Wainwright and then after Matt Carpenter walked, Jay picked up his second hit of the night.

Joe Panik gave the Giants the lead in the bottom of the third inning, as he hit a two-run home run onto the arcade in right field.

Gregor Blanco got the rally started in the inning, as he singled with two outs and then Panik hit his first ever home run at AT&T Park.

The Panik home run was the first by a Giants player since Brandon Belt hit a solo home run in the top of the 18th inning in Game Two of the National League Division Series on October 4 at Nationals Park.

Just one-half inning following the Panik two-run home run, Matt Adams hit his third home run of the postseason and then two batters later, Tony Cruz hit his first home run of the postseason to give the lead back to the Cardinals.

Adams helped the Cardinals advance to their fourth NLCS in a row, as he hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning off of Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cardinals became the first team since the 1998-2001 New York Yankees to advance to four consecutive championship series.

Bumgarner looked shaky in the early going, as he gave up back-to-back singles to Jay and Matt Holliday in the first inning; however he was able to get out of the jam, as Jhonny Peralta lined out to Pablo Sandoval, who quickly threw to Panik to get Jay for the final out of the inning.

Wainwright got off to a tough start as well, as he allowed a leadoff single to Blanco in the bottom of the first inning, but was then able to get Panik to fly out to Jay in center field, then Buster Posey grounded out to shortstop for the second out and then Wainwright got out of the jam, as he got Pablo Sandoval to groundout to Kolten Wong at second base to end the inning.

The Giants blew up a big opportunity in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Sandoval doubled to leadoff the inning, Hunter Pence then walked, but then Brandon Belt lined out into a double play and after a Ishikawa walk, Brandon Crawford struck out to end the inning.

Following the Ishikawa walk in the bottom of the fourth inning and subsequent strikeout of Crawford, Wainwright did not allow another base runner.

On the other side of things, Bumgarner did not allow anyone to reach base following the Cruz home run before being pulled.