SAN FRANCISCO -- Cody Ross keeps giving his best Barry Bonds imitation.
With the home run king watching and cheering from a front-row seat, Ross delivered again, Matt Cain outdueled Cole Hamels and the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 Tuesday for a 2-1 lead in the NL championship series.
Picked up late in the season from Florida, Ross added to his quickly growing postseason legacy. He homered three times in the first two games at Philadelphia and hit an RBI single in Game 3 to break a scoreless tie.
"He plays with no fear," Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "That's what you like about the guy."
Bochy even tinkered with his lineup, moving Ross up into the No. 5 spot. The good-natured guy who aspired to be a rodeo clown as a kid came to the plate to chants of "Cody! Cody!"
"I'm just going up there trying to relax, stay calm, make something happen," Ross said.
San Francisco grabbed the edge in their best-of-seven series against the two-time defending NL champions -- with two more games in their home ballpark.
The Giants have never won the World Series since moving to San Francisco for the 1958 season. They came close in 2002, led by Bonds' slugging.
The last time the Giants franchise won the World Series was 1954, when it played in New York. On a team that included future Hall of Famer Willie Mays and other big-name players, it was a part-time outfielder who hit .253 in his career -- Dusty Rhodes -- who was the Series star with two homers in six at-bats.
So far this postseason, that role of unlikely hero belongs entirely to Ross, an outfielder with a career .265 mark.
Comments