(Update: Kolten Wong hit a walk off home run in the bottom of the 9th Sunday to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants. The series is now tied 1-1 and resumes on Tuesday afternoon in San Francisco)
Two Asian Americans started in game one of the National League Championship Series tonight between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. A third sat in the bullpen, but did not pitch.
Travis Ishikawa (pictured left) started in left field for the San Francisco Giants and went two for three with one run batted in in a 3-0 victory over the Cardinals. He also made a spectacular diving catch robbing Yadier Molina of a hit in the fourth.
“It was huge,”said Ishikawa who normally is a back up first baseman but played left while Michael Morse fully recovers from an injury. “I think a normal outfielder might have been able to catch it without needing to fall. To be able to make that play, it was the third out, with a runner on second…it was great being able to dive for the ball.”
Ishikawa’s father is Japanese American and his grandparents spent time
in an an incarceration camp in Colorado during World War II. His mother is European American.
Kolten Wong (pictured right) is a Chinese Hawaiian from Hilo. The rookie started second base for the St. Louis Cardinal. His two run homer in game 3 of the National League Division Series were the winning runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Saturday night he went hitless in three at bats.
His father Kaha Wong played baseball for the University of Southern California and in the class A minor leagues with the Reno Silver Sox.
Two time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum did not play. His mother is Filipino American and his father a European American.
I don’t know if statistics are kept for this sort of thing, but this game may have been a record for most Asian Americans baseball players in a Championship Series game.
