Written by Bob Nightengale at USAToday.com
They cannot be killed.
The San Francisco Giants, five outs from going home for the winter Monday night, pulled out a stunning come-from-behind, 13-inning 6-5 victory over the Chicago Cubs, overcoming an early knockdown and a ninth-inning gut punch to extend their season.
The Giants still are down 2 games to 1 in this best-of-five NL Division Series, but, oh, how they are alive after surviving Game 3.
For the 10th consecutive time, the Giants won an elimination game, keeping their hopes alive of winning their fourth World Series title in seven years, all in even-numbered years.
Crazy.
This time, the game-winner came from Joe Panik, whose single high off the wall in right field scored Brandon Crawford with the winning run. It came off Mike Montgomery, who provided four gallant innings of scoreless relief, but did not retire a batter in the 13th inning.
The walk-off came four innings after Kris Bryant silenced a raucous AT&T Park crowd with a two-run homer off Sergio Romo in the top of the ninth inning.
Yet even that jolt was not the most jarring turn of events over 5 hours, 3 minutes of taut baseball.
The Cubs, who had the champagne on ice after Jake Arrieta’s three-run homer off Giants ace Madison Bumgarner in the second inning, were cruising with a lead the entire game, until they self-destructed in the eighth.
Giants third baseman Conor Gillaspie was once again the hero, delivering the go-ahead two-run triple off Cubs All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman with one out in the eighth, sending the sellout crowd dancing in the aisles.
The Cubs started unraveling when Brandon Belt led off the eighth inning with a single off Travis Wood. Cubs manager Maddon called on Hector Rondon, who promptly walked Buster Posey.
Maddon then turned to Chapman for a six-out save. He had done it only once in his career, back in 2013 when he was with the Cincinnati Reds.
He still hasn’t done it since 2013.
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