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Vin# 507391, 510937, 521280, 521281, 504790, 504791, 510943, 513956, 510942 2015RAM2500CREW CAB 4X4 DIESEL | CHAMPIONS | 2 B WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM ByAlexPavlovic apavlovic@mercurynews.com HunterPencestoodata computer in the center of the visi- tors' clubhouse at Petco Park and started to click through YouTube videos. The Giants were in the midst of a slump that so often made this season seem like a long, hard road to an October tee time. There were nights when scoring one run at AT&T Park was cause for celebration and others when the vaunted pitching staff looked in need of a rebuild. There was the day Matt Cain was officially lost to elbow surgery and the day Angel Pagan had season-ending back surgery. Almost every day was spent without Marco Scutaro, the anticipated starter at second base. But on this night in San Diego, Pence found the clip he was looking for and hit play on an anthem that became the soundtrack of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament. "I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!" It rumbled through the speakers Giants'faithledtotheirOctoberglory as Pence walked slowly back to his locker and sat down, faith restored. Above all, the 2014 Giants relied on that faith. Oh, there was tal- ent, plenty of it. They had an ace, Madison Bumgarner, who turned into one of the biggest World Series stars in history, and a rotation filled with veterans who never shied away from the moment. The bullpen had a core four — Santiago Casilla, Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and Javier Lopez — that was unhittable and a long man — Yusmeiro Petit — who practically shut out October. The Giants had a lineup buoyed by Pence's hustle, Buster Posey's persistence, Joe Panik's poise, Pablo Sandoval's timing and the power of Michael Morse and Bran- don Belt. The defense was solid at all times and stepped up to spec- tacular when Brandon Crawford or Gregor Blanco got involved. But through the ups and downs of a marathon season, it was faith that provided the foundation. Bruce Bochy told his players they had "Champions Blood," and they believed it. They believed it coursed through their veins from the first workout in Scottsdale, Arizona, until the final pitch in Kansas City. No Giants player spoke more openly about faith than Jake Peavy, the trade-deadline acquisition who went 1-9 in Boston and then 6-4 with a 2.17 ERA down the stretch as Cain's replacement. "Boch and these guys believed that I could be that guy, and when you are shown that faith in you, you want to exhaust every option," Peavy said. "That really can fuel a fire." It was Peavy who got the Giants started in Game 1 of the NLDS in Washington. In Game 2, one out from defeat, they rallied to force extra innings and then won the lon- gest game in postseason history on Brandon Belt's 18th-inning homer. The Giants took that series in four games, thenwon the NLCS in five. Where others saw luck, the men in the clubhouse saw execu- tion and a will to win. ACardinals misplay led to one Giants victory and two Cardinals misplays help win another game. "Rocks and slingshots," third- base coach Tim Flannery said. "We can score runs without hits. We've proven that." There was no stronger example of faith than Travis Ishikawa, who nearly retired but instead took one last minor-league shot with the organization that had drafted him.. In the ninth inning of the clincher against St. Louis, Ishikawa blasted a fastball into the dark San Fran- cisco night and the Giants walked off into the World Series. "It's so gratifying," Ishikawa said. "I'm so happy I was able to do it for this city and this team." The Giants were hardly finished. Bumgarner rolled the Kansas City Royals in Game 1 of the World Series, then restored the Giants' series lead with a Game 5 shutout. That was just the warmup. In Game 7, two nights after throwing 117 pitches, Bumgarner came out of the bullpen with five more scoreless innings to nail down a 3-2 victory the third championship in five years. A dynasty was born, one therest of baseball never saw coming. Only the Giants did. Joe Panik, the Giants' second baseman, was basking in the cham- pagne mist after Game 7 when someone reminded him that in June, he was playing minor league baseball in Fresno. "If you'd told me then where I'd be right now, I'd have said you were crazy," Panik said as he shook his head. If you had told the other Giants the same thing in June, they would likely have said the same thing. It is why this 2014 World Series title by the Giants is the most unlikely of the three they have won since 2010. The summer of 2014 was a frustrating and often de- pressing time for the Giants, when their fast start turned into a slog through patches of losing sludge and mediocrity. They never did entirely shake the malaise. As they pushed toward a wild-card berth, they won only six of their final 15 regular-season games. But every championship team has a moment when it realizes how great it can really be. The moment can develop at the strangest of times, in the most unexpected ways. And the Giants had one. For them, the moment oc- curred on a clear, chilly night in the nation's capital. The date was Oct. 4. The Giants gutted it out through 18 innings over 6 hours and 23 min- utes — the longest playoff game in MLB history — and won 2-1 when Brandon Belt hit a home run in the top of the 18th. The result gave the Giants a 2-0 series lead over the Washington A team defined by 18 innings Nationals, on paper the superior team, with the best-of-five series going to AT&T Park. Before that pivot point, the Giants thought they might have a chance to win another World Series. Afterward, they were dead certain. "I think when we went back home from Washington up, two games to none, that was kind of a game changer for us," Belt said. "We're like, 'OK, we already knew we were good, but ... we're playing good baseball and we have a chance to go all the way.'" What exactly happened that night in Washington D.C.? Tough- ness happened. Doggedness hap- pened. Confidence happened and was supersized. The Giants stared down an excellent Nationals team that desperately needed a victory. They would not let them have it. After catching a break in the top of the ninth when Washington manager Matt Williams yanked uber-effective starter Jordan Zim- merman, the Giants tied the score at 1-1 when Panik scored on a double by Pablo Sandoval. And then, with reliever Yusmeiro Petit holding off one of baseball's best lineups for inning after inning as the tempera- ture dropped and the clock nudged past midnight, the Giants played solid defense until Belt homered. "The 18-inning game was an amazing thing," said Giants general manager Brian Sabean, who agrees it was the team's watershed event. "Think about it. For the Nationals, there were nine bottom-of-the-ninth situations. We shut them out nine times in the bottom of the ninth." After the game, some locker room stuff was also inspirational. An informal team gathering was held before the media entered. The Giants used eight pitchers in the 18- inning game. Tim Lincecum, who spent the postseason in the back reaches of the bullpen, was not one of them. If there had been any ques- tions, Lincecum now understood he was clearly the arm of last resort. But after the game, Lincecum was as pumped up as any Giant and made sure his teammates knew it. This made an impression, espe- cially among the younger players. The vibe was taking hold: We can win this whole damn thing. We can. After all, what could they possibly face that was mentally and physi- cally tougher than those 18 innings in the cold on the road? Manager Bruce Bochy could pull out that card throughout October. "He could use it any time he wanted the rest of the way," Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti said. "It was like, 'Did you see what you guys did? If you can do that, you can do anything.'" Which they proceeded to do. Bochy's postseason motivational talent is that he can convince every single player of a righteous fact — that every at-bat and every out and every play could possibly be the most important of the post- season. Thus, it is mandatory to compete that way. Once the Bochy mantra was reinforced by the 18-in- ning game, his players were again locked into the program. And the results were manifest. Madison Bumgarner became a Left-Handed Superman. Hunter Pence plastered himself against the right-field wall to make a spectacu- lar catch in series-wrapup Game 4 against Washington, then batted .444 in the World Series. What else? Gregor Blanco replaced injured Angel Pagan in center field and created a reel of defensive highlights, especially in the impressive NLCS victory over postseason-hardened St. Louis. Sandoval was Panda-tastic. Catcher Buster Posey had no extra- base hits in the postseason but handled the pitching staff master- fully. The historic narrative of the 2014 Giants will probably be that of a team that was carried to a World Series title on the aw-shucks shoulders of Bumgarner. That's fine. There's a lot of truth to that narrative, especially when the post- season reached the final stages. Still, much had to occur before Bumgarner's astounding perfor- mances in Game 5 and Game 7. Earlier in October, the Giants first needed to gain the conviction about themselves, the certitude they could even get as far as a Game 5 or Game 7 against an American League team. On that chilly evening in the District of Columbia, the conviction and certitude arrived by special 18-inning delivery. That was the first and most important chapter of the narrative. And no one should forget it. MARKPURDY COLUMNIST MORE ONLINE Formoreon the 2014 World Series cham- pion Giants, including slide shows, videos and coverage of the victory parade in San Francisco, go to mercurynews. com/giants 'TRIPLE CROWNED' Purchase our commemora- tive book"Triple Crowned"at www.triumph books.com DAVID J. PHILLIP — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Giants celebrate a er winning Game 7of the World Series.