Baseball playoffs: Ishikawa helps Giants into National League Championship Series against Phillies

Published 9:48 am Friday, October 15, 2010

Travis Ishikawa and the San Francisco Giants will open the National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16.

The Federal Way High School graduate helped the Giants knock out the Atlanta Braves in the Division Series in four games. Ishikawa, a backup first baseman for San Francisco, played in three games against the Braves and scored the ninth inning, game-tying run in the decisive third game of the series. The Giants eventually won the game to take control of the series. Ishikawa got on base with a pinch-hit walk during the Sunday win.

It wasn’t lost on Ishikawa that the guy who wears No. 10 scored the tying run on 10-10-10.

“Everyone kept telling me it was going to be a big day for me,” said Ishikawa, who scored from second base on Aubrey Huff’s single. “My brain was running a lot faster than my legs allowed me.”

Ishikawa played 116 games this year for the Giants. He hit .266 in 158 at bats with 42 hits, 11 doubles, three home runs and 22 RBIs.

Ishikawa spent last season as San Francisco’s everyday first baseman after earning the job with an impressive 2008 season in the minor leagues. Last season, Ishikawa hit .261 with nine home runs and 39 RBIs in 120 regular season games. Ishikawa earned the job during spring training last year, when he hit .302 with seven home runs and 17 RBIs.

But this season, Ishikawa’s role was mostly as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement for Huff late in games. For the first half of the 2010 season, Ishikawa was leading the Major Leagues as a pinch hitter with a .476 average (10 for 21).

Ishikawa was a 21st round draft choice by the Giants out of Federal Way High School in 2002.