By Morris Phillips

Travis Ishikawa wasn’t supposed to be a playoff hero.  In his return to the organization that drafted him in 2002, he was supposed to be a familiar face at AAA Fresno, providing depth and versatility for the Grizzlies.

Michael Morse wasn’t supposed to be a playoff hero either.  Morse was supposed to be regaining his health for pinch-hitting assignments with Ishikawa assuming his spot in left field. Morse missed almost the entire month of September in an attempt to regain his conditioning and health after an oblique injury, and he wasn’t on the Giants’ roster for the wild card game or the NLDS.

Of course, the Giants weren’t supposed to be capable of a dramatic, pennant-clinching home run.  First of all, no team had managed such a feat in hundreds of playoffs games since 2006.  And the Giants had spent all of this post-season trying to become the first team to manufacture all of their runs using duct tape, breakfast cereal and ice water.

But all of that changed Thursday night when first, Morse homered off of Pat Neshek to tie NLCS Game 5 in the eighth, and Ishikawa followed with his game-winning hit turned three-run homer in the ninth.

Like any sports moment immediately etched on millions of watchers minds, this one had its own story.  Ishikawa recounted the final pitch of the NLCS afterwards.

“Obviously got a good pitch.  When I first hit it, again.  I just thought it was going to be a walk-off hit, so I was throwing my hands up in the air, and then I just heard.  I remember hearing the crowd just going crazy, and so my thought was, ‘Okay, if this gets out, it’s going to be fantastic.’”

“And I saw it get out and I remember high-fiving Roberto.  I don’t remember going from first to second.  Later I found out it was Peavy that was jumping at me between second and third.  I didn’t know who it was.  I just knew it was somebody,” Ishikawa said.

The level of unbridled excitement jam-packed into the moment of Ishikawa’s home run was personified by the awkward meeting of Peavy and the game’s hero between second and third base.  Peavy, who has started seven playoff games in his career, including Game 3 of the 2013 World Series for the Red Sox, instantly transformed from veteran to amateur by wandering onto the field of play with the game going on and compounding his mistake by awkwardly grabbing Ishikawa.  The game’s hero smartly shed Peavy and in deference to his experience gained as a bit player in the Giants’ 2010 title run continued his trip around the bases and at least momentarily considered the rules of the game.

“I know the base coaches are not allowed to touch runners when they are trying to score, so I didn’t know if touching him was going to cost me the home run or something,” Ishikawa recounted.  “I was just trying to push him out of the way.”

The Giants became the first team to win eight consecutive post-season series and nine consecutive playoff opponents including their win over the Pirates in this season’s playoff opener.  Game 1 winner and Game 5 starter Madison Bumgarner was named the NLCS MVP and manager Bruce Bochy, simply as a byproduct of having this much post-season success pushing buttons without so much as a hiccup, was anointed a baseball deity.

“I mean, what a great story,” Bochy said of Ishikawa.  “Here he gets released and we sign him, he goes to Fresno, comes up, he’s our everyday left fielder and ends up getting the home run to get us to the World Series.”

“I couldn’t be happier for him, everybody.  I mean, just a gutty effort through all this and I couldn’t be prouder of these guys.  They just don’t stop fighting.”

To the Cardinals’ credit, this one was a fight, with St. Louis desperately trying to push the series back home for the last two games.  Cardinals’ starter Adam Wainwright was terrific, allowing just four hits in seven innings of work, with Joe Panik’s two-run homer in the third standing as Wainwright’s only blemish.  Panik’s shot gave the Giants an early lead, but St. Louis first baseman Matt Adams homered in the fourth to tie it, and backup catcher Tony Cruz followed with a solo shot to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.

For the Giants, Bumgarner went eight innings, allowing both the Adams and Cruz homers.  He gave way to Santiago Casilla in the ninth, and Jeremy Affeldt came on to get the final out of the ninth and became the game’s winning pitcher when Ishikawa connected.

The Giants and the American League champion Royals begin the World Series on Tuesday evening at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.  The Royals have yet to drop a post-season game, winning eight straight to set a new major league record.  The Royals also swept a three-game series from the Giants in early August, also in Kansas City, with Bumgarner, Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum the Giants’ starters and losing pitchers of record in that order.

The Giants bring the World Series back to AT&T Park for the third time in five years on October 24 and 25 with a potential Game 5 scheduled for Sunday evening, October 26, if necessary.