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Giants win again in final at-bat

Apr 10, 2011 - 7:04 AM San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - On the night the Giants received their 2010 World Series rings, the team's newest player, Miguel Tejada roped a two- run double in the bottom of the ninth to give San Francisco a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Giants starter Matt Cain went seven solid innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out four. Ramon Ramirez (1-0) got the win for pitching a perfect top of the ninth.

Colby Rasmus, who bobbled the catch on Tejada's game-winning shot, paced the Cardinals with a solo homer in the seventh while Ryan Franklin (0-1) blew his second save in as many days.

Jaime Garcia went a solid six innings for St. Louis, allowing only one run on four hits while striking out nine.

Aaron Rowand gave the Giants a 5-4 victory in the first game of this three- game set with a deep shot off the left-center field fence in 12 innings, and in just as much of a dramatic fashion, this one came down to the last at-bat.

Trailing 2-1 after Rasmus' lead-off homer in the seventh, the Giants opened up the ninth with an Aubrey Huff groundout. Buster Posey singled and Pat Burrell worked a walk to put runners on first and second, and after Rowand flied out to deep right on his chance for back-to-back heroics, the game came down to Tejada.

Tejada worked the count full and took the ninth pitch of the at-bat, a high fastball, deep to the left-center warning track, where Rasmus bobbled the attempt at a basket catch.

"It definitely ruined my evening," Rasmus said. "It's not going to be a fun one the rest of the day."

With runners going on the swing, Posey and Burrell crossed the plate, capping the monumental night for a franchise that was celebrating its first championship since 1954.

"Great at-bat by Miggy there," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "You've got a guy that has the experience he does, he wants to be there and just really threw out a great at-bat."

Mark DeRosa got the Giants on the board in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single that scored Burrell from second.

The Cardinals capitalized on an errant pitch in sixth inning from Cain to get on the board. Skip Schumaker started the inning with a walk, and after advancing to second on a Jon Jay groundout moved over to third on an Albert Pujols out to second.

Cain was working on Lance Berkman but threw a wild pitch that rolled to the back padding, allowing Schumaker to score from third. Cain didn't allow it to affect him, as he jammed Berkman into a third consecutive groundout to end the inning.

Game Notes

Rasmus accounted for two of the Cardinals' five hits...Nate Schierholtz finished 3-for-3 with a triple for the Giants...Tejada went 2-for-3 with a walk...Cain threw 99 pitches, 66 for strikes.