Blasts from the Past : Travis Ishikawa's Pennant Clinching Home Run

Our first series during the Major League Baseball offseason will be called Blasts from the Past. We will be storytelling some historical home runs that changed the baseball landscape for particular teams or players, or just straight up gives you goosebumps every time you watch it.

Up first is Travis Ishikawa's walk-off home run for the San Francisco Giants against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the 2014 National League Championship Series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uogT8X26-ko

Credit: MLB

To start, Ishikawa had a eight year Major League career, six total being spent with the Giants. Travis originally played with the team from 2006-2010, and won the 2010 World Series with the Giants against the Rangers, which kickstarted the Bay Area team's early 2010s dynasty. But in 2014, after starting the year with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he was traded back to the Giants and was used mostly as a pinch hitter and backup first baseman.

However, in Game 5 of the NLCS, Ishikawa started the game in left field and was 0-for-2 with a walk, but in the bottom of the ninth inning, the legacy of his career would change forever...

It's important to note that the winner of this game goes to the World Series, and both team's aces were on the mound, with the Giants having postseason hero Madison Bumgarner, and Cardinals legend Adam Wainwright starting for the opposition. "Waino" went seven innings giving up two runs for St. Louis, and "MadBum" went eight innings giving up three runs. Along with another run the Giant scored in the bottom of the eighth, the score would be all square at three a piece going into the bottom of the ninth.

The Cardinals sent out Michael Wacha to preserve the game where it was at and send the game into extra innings. However, a Pablo Sandoval single, Hunter Pence flyout, and Brandon Belt walk meant that there would be runners on first and second base with one out. Just one run scored by the Giants sends them to the World Series for the third time in five years.

In steps in Ishikawa, or "Smoky" as they call him. After working the count to two balls and zero strikes, he sends a low and inside fastball at 96 mph from Wacha into the deep, Bay Area night sky in right field, going over the brick outfield wall...walking it off for the Giants, winning the game 6 to 3, and sending them to the World Series to face the Kansas City Royals.

Here's a first row look at the home run recorded by a Giants fan and posted on the YouTube channel James "Jedeye" Young:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq9un5d7fGw

Giant's coaches and players ran on to the field to celebrate as Ishikawa was rounding the bases. Specifically, near-sighted Giants starting pitcher Jake Peavy thought the ball hit the outfield brick wall and rushed to tackle Ishikawa in celebration thinking the play was over, but in reality he still needed to finish his home run trot and touch home plate. Travis would slam his helmet down rounding third base in pure excitement and then be further mobbed by his team. Famously, this was the first walk-off home run in Giants postseason history since Bobby Thompson's "Shot Heard Around the World", which similarly won the Giants the NL Pennant in the 1951 season.

Credit: NESN

However, the New York Giants would lose to the Yankees in the 1951 World Series in six games. But, this time 63 years later and a relocation to San Francisco, the Giants would finish the job and win the 2014 World Series against the Kansas City Royals in seven games.

I have watched the video of Ishikawa's walk-off home run hundreds of times growing up playing baseball and as a little kid I always dreamt of being in that spot he was and hitting that home run to send my team to the World Series. I get goosebumps and nostalgia every time I watch the video to this day.

Credit: ESPN

Historical and meaningful home runs like this one are what can define baseball fans and players' experience with the game they so desperately love. So, in looking back at Ishikawa's walk-off pennant-clinching home run, the ambush and rush of positive emotions and excitement is what every player dreams of and every fan relishes in. More home run blasts like this one will be covered throughout the series and will give you a look into what has built up the vault of memorable moments in this sport.