Giants rout Cardinals to reach World Series

The San Francisco Giants routed the St Louis Cardinals 9-0 in Game Seven of the National League Championship Series on Tuesday to complete a stunning comeback and advance to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers.

The Giants, the 2010 World Series winners, trailed last year’s champion Cardinals 3-1 in the best-of-seven series but completed three straight victories by a combined score of 20-1 to win the National League championship four games to three.

San Francisco will host the American League winning Tigers, who swept the New York Yankees 4-0 to win the pennant, in the first two games of Major League Baseball’s championship starting with the opener of the Fall Classic on Wednesday.

The victory for the Giants was their sixth do-or-die triumph of the postseason, after fighting back to win the last three games on the road in their best-of-five Division Series with the Cincinnati Reds.

“They played with more heart, more determination than any club I’ve ever seen,” said manager Bruce Bochy after hoisting the National League championship trophy. “They were relentless, they didn’t want to go home.

“They had a never-say die attitude. They wanted to win for each other rather than themselves. These guys just never quit, they kept believing and I couldn’t be prouder of a group of guys and what they accomplished here.”