Travis Ishikawa’s walk-off home run sends Giants to World Series

Ned Yost is in the World Series. Don Mattingly and Matt Williams can walk freely around their towns.

In an October packed with managerial decisions gone wrong, the other guys are off the hook. Mike Matheny made the biggest blunder of the postseason Thursday, entrusting the ninth inning of an elimination game with a tie score to a starting pitcher who had not appeared in three weeks.

“That’s on me,” Matheny said after the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3, to qualify for the World Series again.

That was accountability, not regret. Matheny was not apologizing for his decision, at least not publicly. Matheny’s Cardinals were eliminated from the playoffs, stunningly and swiftly, after the manager bypassed half a dozen relievers in favor of Michael Wacha, who last came out of the bullpen 14 months ago.

For the Giants, the hero was Travis Ishikawa, who did not have a job in April. The major leaguers were playing. He was not.

Ishikawa has a job now. He is the left fielder for the National League entry in the World Series, after he hit the walk-off home run to lift the Giants.

“I remember hearing the crowd just going crazy,” Ishikawa said. “My thought was, ‘OK, if this gets out, it’s going to be fantastic.’”

The home run was the third of the game for a Giants team that had not hit any in the first four games of the NLCS.

The Giants won the series, four games to one. They are the first team to represent the NL in the World Series three times in five years since the Atlanta Braves did it in 1995, ’96 and ’99.

Matheny was left to explain how his team’s season ended with his closer stranded in the bullpen.

The Cardinals were six outs from sending the series back to St. Louis, leading, 3-2, and turning to trusted setup man Pat Neshek.

The lead lasted all of three pitches, the third of which was clobbered by Michael Morse deep into left field and barely inside the foul pole. Morse raised his hands skyward as he rounded the bases, AT&T Park erupted into a deafening roar, and the Giants had tied the score, 3-3.

The Cardinals had closer Trevor Rosenthal ready for the ninth. They had Randy Choate, their left-handed specialist, ready to face any or all of the three left-handed batters the Giants had lined up in the inning. They also had at their disposal a strikeout artist, Carlos Martinez, and a ground-ball artist, Seth Maness.

Why risk losing without using the closer?

“We can’t bring him in in a tie game on the road,” Matheny said, indicating he wanted to save Rosenthal for a potential save situation.

Wacha did not make the Cardinals’ four-man playoff rotation, limited to 162/3 innings after the All-Star break because of a shoulder injury. With the season on the line, Wacha was the guy.

Pablo Sandoval led off the ninth inning with a single. Hunter Pence flied out, but Brandon Belt walked on four pitches. Wacha threw two balls to Ishikawa — six consecutive balls — then threw the 96-mph fastball that Ishikawa hit to end the Cardinals’ season.

After the game, Matheny apologized to Wacha for putting him in a tough spot.

“I’ve pitched in the postseason before,” said Wacha, the MVP of last year’s NLCS. “I’ve pitched some tough innings. I’ve pitched in some hostile environments. I was ready for it.”

Was it reasonable to expect him to have sharp command after not pitching for three weeks?

“I don’t know,” Wacha said.

Said Wainwright: “There’s nobody else you want out there, whether he’s pitched in a while or not. You take your chances with your best athlete.”

Did Wainwright expect Matheny to use Wacha in that spot?

“I stay out of it,” Wainwright said.

In explaining his decision to use Wacha, Matheny essentially indicted the rest of his bullpen.

“We’ve had some other guys who haven’t exactly had pinpoint control,” Matheny said. “We liked his stuff.

“I don’t know if anybody could expect him to be sharp. That’s on me.”

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

Twitter: @BillShaikin