Fans celebrate SF Giants' big win over Cards in Game 3

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco Giants fans are celebrating after the team's big 5-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals Tuesday in Game 3 of the NLCS.

When the game ended, fans didn't just leave the ballpark. They exploded out of the ballpark. It was a crazed, cheering, jubilant, expectant, relieved mass of humanity that poured out of AT&T Park on Tuesday afternoon.

Based on what we saw, it's time to bring out the fever word. And if not fever, fervent, at least; and certainly building after the win.

When asked what the win means for San Francisco, one fan said, "It means that we're an awesome, awesome city!"

Another added, "It's huge! It's October it's our time!"

"It was extremely exciting, I almost had a heart attack," said Giants fan Doris Spitcig with a laugh. "And it was just a fabulous game and I was so happy to be able to be here today! I'm going to jump up and down, because I'm just that excited. It has been, it's just amazing!"

Crews worked hard Tuesday morning to make the field perfect for a playoff game; a game that for some fans is about more than just the runs, hits, and errors.

"This is actually the first championship game I've gone to," said Pittsburg resident Frank Aiello. "I've been a Giants fan since I was yay high, watching Willie Mays. So I'm just kinda excited to just be here and experience the process. And I brought my two boys."

PHOTOS: SF Giants fans show off playoff pride!

Of course the diehard season ticketholders were there too, bringing with them enthusiasm and opinions.

"I was really unhappy with that last homerun," said season ticketholder Phyllis Bergsd. "Our guys need to start hitting a little bit more. But they're gonna do it."

And then there are those playoff price tags. Jack Jarrett spent $225 on a jersey and $850 on tickets for Tuesday and Wednesday's games. And he flew in from Australia.

"I live in Sydney, I come to San Fran just for the games," he said. "And hopefully I will be flying for the World Series if they make it."

The fans we talked to are feeling confident the Giants will win this series.

"It's all about not being jittery in games like this, it's all about not being nervous," Aiello said. "And there's one things we've learned as fans in the past, they're not nervous."

In the clubhouse, players sounded confident and realistic as they headed into Game 3.

"Well, at this stage of the season they're all important," said pitcher Ryan Vogelsong. "You never really like to not win one, but obviously we're playing a very good team over there. And they're evenly matched series as we know. So they're all important. We want to try to win them all here and finish this thing up."

Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead joined San Francisco Giants third base coach and musician Tim Flannery to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 3.

After the Giants held on to beat St. Louis 5-4 in 10 innings, Flannery announced the trio are "now 3-0" when singing the anthem together. The third base coach is 4-1 overall, losing once when he sang with his brother on "Grateful Dead Night."

"We did this two years ago," Flannery said. "And they haven't been together. They're about ready to start a 50th anniversary Grateful Dead, so they kind of split their ways this last summer, and so this might have been the first time they've been together."

"Yeah, we'll get him back out there tomorrow," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said with a smile of Flannery's singing.

Show your support for the San Francisco Giants and email playoff fever fan photos to uReport@kgo-tv.com!

The Associated Press contributed to this report.