San Francisco, CA – The Giants celebrated their 2012 World Series title with a ticker-tape parade through the streets of San Francisco on Wednesday.
The Giants took a 4-3 victory in Game 4 over Detroit on Sunday night to finish off a four-game sweep of the Tigers and claim their second World Series win in the last three years.
San Francisco ended a 56-year World Series drought by winning it all in 2010, and completed this year's run by staving off six elimination games.
"If I had to pin a tag line on this team, it would be 'never say die,'" remarked Giants manager Bruce Bochy.
The parade began at the foot of Market Street near the Ferry Building and continued down Market to Civic Center Plaza.
Following the parade, on the steps of City Hall, Mayor Edward Lee presented the team with the key to the city in front of an estimated one million people.
It was a memorable postseason run for San Francisco, which ran away with the NL West crown in the regular season before taking on the NL Central champion Cincinnati Reds in the NLDS.
The Reds jumped out to a 2-0 series lead with a pair of road wins in San Francisco, but the Giants were able to keep their postseason alive by becoming the first NL squad since the advent of the wild card era to win a division series after losing two in a row at home to start.
The defending champion St. Louis Cardinals were up next for the Giants, who found themselves with their backs against the wall yet again, as the Cardinals grabbed a 3-1 series lead.
San Francisco, as it did all postseason, played its best baseball when it mattered the most, as the pitching staff held the Cardinals to just one run over the final three games to send the Giants to the Fall Classic.
The Giants needed just four games to dispose of the AL Central champion Detroit Tigers, as Pablo Sandoval, the World Series MVP, secured his spot in postseason lure by smashing three home runs in the Giants' 8-3 Game 1 victory.
The San Francisco pitching staff then shut the Tigers out in back-to-back 2-0 victories before Marco Scutaro's go-ahead, RBI single in the 10th inning of Game 4 sent the Giants to their second World Series title in three years.
"Unfortunately for Detroit, with all due respect, they didn't know what they were in for," said Giants GM Brian Sabean.
Sabean's midseason roster moves helped to prepare the Giants for their World Series surge, as Scutaro, who garnered NLCS MVP honors, and right fielder Hunter Pence were each acquired in separate trade-deadline deals.
"There's one simple thing that happened with this team that hasn't happened enough; it was sacrifice," said Pence, whose speech before Game 3 of the NLDS gained national acclaim. "They sacrificed their egos and played for (the fans)."
The Giants went 10-1 in the postseason when scoring first and won their final seven games en route to their seventh title in franchise history.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.