Whenever Giants pitcher Jason Schmidt needed an extra boost Saturday night, he peered into the family section at Edison Field.
His mother, Vicki, who has brain cancer, traveled from Kelso, Wash., to attend the game.
“She’s excited, obviously,” Schmidt said on the eve of his first World Series start.
When Vicki Schmidt learned in March that she had a brain tumor, doctors feared she would have only 18 months to live. Her son left spring training for his mother’s surgery, during which the tumor was removed and found to be malignant.
“Jason’s been very strong through this,” Vicki Schmidt told USA Today. “I feel like I’m healing, not dying, and to see my son so happy helps so much. I have to be strong for him.”
Schmidt, 29, turned in an inspired performance in Game 1 of the World Series. He earned the victory by allowing three runs over 52/3 innings.
His nemesis was Troy Glaus, who took him deep twice.
“I underestimated him,” Schmidt said.
After falling behind Schmidt 0-2 in the second inning, the brawny third baseman hammered a slider over the left-field wall.
“I really thought I hung that slider to him,” Schmidt said. “But then I went back and watched the tape. I had good bite on it, but it caught a little too much of the plate.”
Glaus turned on Schmidt’s 1-0 fastball in the sixth. The thigh-high pitch was orbited into the left-field seats.
Schmidt might have been rattled after that home run. He issued his only walk of the game to the next batter, Brad Fullmer. With two outs, Adam Kennedy singled to right to score Fullmer on Schmidt’s 92nd and final pitch of the night.
He then watched relievers Felix Rodriguez, Tim Worrell and Robb Nen shut down Anaheim the rest of the way.
Schmidt certainly departed sooner than he would have hoped, but his performance, like his dominant start in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Cardinals, showed a clear resolve.
“I thought I was going to be real nervous going into the game,” he said. “There’s so much other stuff that goes on. You have to find tickets for your family and you get flights for them. It’s almost like the last thing on your mind is the game and that’s not the way it should be.
“I was stressed out when I got to the park, but as soon as I got on the mound it was like tunnel vision. Somebody asked me if the crowd was pretty loud and I said: `I couldn’t tell you.'”
Schmidt’s teammates were not surprised at his success.
J.T. Snow, who hit a two-run homer in the sixth, recalled how he felt after losing his mother, Merry Carole, to cancer in 1998.
“Sometimes the most calming three hours are the ones on the field,” he said.
