Giants drop game 3 in Texas

RANGERS 4 - GIANTS 2

Cody Ross hits postseason homer number 6

Nobody expected a sweep.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Thoughts of a sweep were dancing through Giants fans minds after they manhandled the Rangers in the first two world series games in San Francisco.  But these Texas Rangers are actually a pretty good team.

I know a lot of people were upset about the strike zone last night and they have a legitimate gripe.  Colby Lewis' strike zone was almost as big as the one Livan Hernandez was getting with the Marlins.  Jonathan Sanchez could have taken advantage of that strike zone too but he was so wild his pitches weren't even close.  He did battle last night and held the damage to 4 runs against a very potent Rangers offense.

There are some good reasons to worry that Sanchez has hit a wall.  After his dominant performance against the Braves, he has turned in 3 stinkers in a row.  The two games against the Phillies were surprising because he has dominated the Phils in his career.  The game last night was surprising because he gave up 2 homeruns to left handed batters.  Something he had only done 5 times in the regular season.  Sure, Josh Hamilton hit one of those but the real killer to Mitch Moreland was the real killer and wound up being the difference in the game.

Sanchez's wildness might be a hint that he has reached his limit in terms of innings pitched.  He is at 213.1 IP this season.  His previous high was 163.1 IP last season.  So he is 50 over his previous high.  His extreme wildness would be an indicator that he is tired.  But the Giants have no other choice than to hope he has one more good start in him in game 7.  The only other option would be to start rookie Madison Bumgarner on 3 days rest but he is in a similar situation as far as an increase in innings even though he hasn't shown the same signs of fatigue.  But since I predicted the Giants to win in 6 games we shouldn't have to worry about what kind of Sanchez we will be getting in game 7.

The offense was mediocre again last night.  Besides the usual Cody Ross homerun and a homerun by Andres Torres, the Giants were only able to muster 3 hits off of Rangers starter Colby Lewis.  Thus they continued their season long tradition of making mediocre starters look like Cy Young award candidates.

Tonight Madison Bumgarner, one of the heroes of game 6 against the Phillies, will be going against Tommy  Hunter who is sporting a 6.14 ERA in the postseason.  The matchup favors the Giants and that's good given the importance of game 4 in the World Series.  This is a pivotal game given the history behind who wins game 4 and it's relation to the eventual series winner.

Some other random thoughts.

Pat Burrell is enough of a professional to work his way out of his slump at the plate.  As with Sanchez, there just aren't many alternatives at this point.  But he is still a force in the lineup and his presence is a factor in how the Rangers approach Buster Posey.  I love Nate Schierholtz but there is no way he is as valuable to the team as a hitter as Pat Burrell and he definitely does not have the lineup presence.

Keep Pablo as the DH.  Sure he didn't look that great last night but he hasn't played in over a week.  Now that he has had 4 ABs to get his stroke and to work out the nerves of playing in the World Series, he should be much better.  He is the Giants best option at DH anyway.

Despite all the gloom and doom of last night's loss, there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the series.  The Giants don't have to win any games in Arlington.  They can go home and still maintain home field advantage.  That's the worst case scenario.  Also, they still have Lincecum and Cain looming in games 5 and 6 so things don't look so bad after all!

It just wouldn't be fitting to not have some torture in the World Series after having it in just about every other aspect of 2010!

Go Giants!

Pablo to DH game 3

Bruce Bochy has announced that Pablo Sandoval will be the DH for game 3 of the series.

The Giants will be facing righty Colby Lewis and wanted to get another lefty in the lineup.

I'm glad he resisted the temptation to put Pat Burrell in as DH just because he did it with Tampa.  Burrell was so good as a DH in Tampa, they released him with close to $9 million owed to him.

As for Huff batting DH and bringing in Ishikawa to play first, I believe Bochy doesn't want to lose one of his best pinch hitters (even thought there will be less pinch hitting opportunities with no pitchers in the lineup).

No, Pablo Sandoval is the clear cut choice to be the DH, especially when he is batting left-handed.  In the Rangers small ballpark he will have a chance to use some of his power and maybe he can contribute.

3:30 game time!

Cain and the Giants beat down the Rangers

GIANTS 9 - RANGERS 0

ESPN took a poll before the World Series started and 49 out of 50 states picked the Rangers to beat the Giants  in the World series.

I wonder what kind of results you would get if you took that poll again today?

The Giants dominated the Rangers in every facet of the game last night.  They shut them out (for only the sixth time this season) and they brought the big bats with them that they used last night.

The story of the game is Matt Cain.  After toiling in relative obscurity for the first 5 years of his career, he started to get a little recognition last season with his selection to the All-Star game last season.  He didn't get to pitch thanks to a line drive thanks to a line drive off his forearm but it was the first recognition of what a good pitcher he is.

Last night he put himself amongst the immortals.

With his 7.1 innings of shutout baseball, Cain becomes the fourth pitcher to throw 20+ consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.  That list of  4 now has two Giants on it and Christy Matthewson is at the top of that list with 27 consecutive innings pitched.  Cain probably won't get a chance to catch the All-Time Giants great since his turn doesn't look like it's going to come back around again.  no matter what, Cain has shown the world the great pitcher that Giants fans have known they have had for a few years now.  The guys over at RaisingMattCain must be going crazy tonight!

The guy that got all the scoring started was Edgar Renteria.  His solo homerun in the 5th got the scoring going for the game.  He was the latest of a long line of heroes who have stepped up for the Giants this postseason.  But Renteria stepping up is possibly one of the most inspiring. Edgar is a guy who had a pretty solid career, from his game winning hit for the Florida Marlins in game 7 of the 1997 World Series to all of his postseason experience with the Cardinals and Red Sox he has produced.  Then he came to the Giants and has done nothing but struggle.  Both with his health and with his bat.  A lot of Giants fans have considered his signing a bust, and up until this world series it has been.  But this World Series is making Brian Sabean look like a genius for signing him.

Renteria has said he is contemplating retirement after the season.  If he does retire, then there is no better way to go out than the way he has been this World Series.

Enjoy the off day today. The series picks up again tomorrow in Texas.  Jonathan Sanchez Vs. Colby Lewis.  So far this series has been relatively torture-free but this is the 2010 Giants so don't be surprised if a little of that creeps in.  The Giants really only have to win one game in Texas.  At this point, it doesn't look like the Giants will be coming home except to enjoy the parade down market street.

Giants shock even themselves while stunning the Rangers!

GIANTS 11 - RANGERS 7

Ever since the San Francisco Giants clinched on Saturday night, I had a nagging feeling that there would be a game like this in the World Series.  Never in a million years did I expect that it would come with Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum on the mound.

The Giants pounded out 14 hits last night, 8 of them off of Lee, and 11 runs, 6 off of Lee, to defeat the Rangers 11-7.

This pitching matchup didn't have quite the anticipation that the Lincecum - Halladay matchup had, but it was pretty well hyped.  Lee was an astounding 7-0 in postseason play and he had just come off of a masterful performance against the Yankees.  The Giants, on the other hand, had  struggled to put runs on the board all season long and were not an offense that anyone expected to defeat the mighty Lee.  As a matter of fact, the Giants were such underdogs that an ESPN poll had 49 out of 50 states picking the Rangers to win this world series.

But this is a Giants team that has handled Ubaldo Jimenez, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels, Adam Wainright, and manhandled most of them.

Now they can add Cliff Lee to this list.

On a night when Tim Lincecum didn't have his best stuff (good thing they got the early series lead because I doubt that at this point Timmy could be effective on short rest) the Giants offense picked him up.  Lincecum did battle however because the game could have been easily 6-0 after the second inning rather than 2-0.

But the offense is really the story here.  Led by Freddy Sanchez whose 3 doubles set a world series record with three straight doubles in their world series debut.  Juan Uribe chipped in with a 3 run homer in the 5th that basically put an end to the contest.  Cody Ross chipped in with his usual RBI and Aurey Huff chipped in 3 hits of his own.

I do have to give a special shout out to Edgar Renteria.  He is rapidly making up for all of those days on the DL.  His performance last night in the field and even at the plate made me wonder if this was the same guy who the Giants have been trotting out at shortstop every so often, when he was healthy, for the last 2 seasons.  He is earning those 12 million dollars now.  That play he made on Ian Kinsler was a play that I wouldn't have believed he could make if I hadn't seen it myself.

Overall it was a great win.  I really wish that the Giants wouldn't have let the Rangers have those 3 runs in the ninth but they did.  The Giants even make blowouts torture don't they.  This Giants team has shown time and time again that they do what it takes to win games and they did it again last night.  No we are fooling ourselves to think that the Giants are going to put up double digits every night, but the Giants offense has been struggling for a while now and it was time for them to get hot.  Boy did they ever pick the right time to get hot!

It all starts tonight!

What a great season it's been!

Tonight our beloved San Francisco giants take on a team in the Texas Rangers that is just as World Series starved as they are.  It's been 55 years for the Giants since they last won a world series.  The Rangers?  Well they have never won a world series.

As I stated in an earlier post, the 2010 Giants team has been my favorite team out of the three World Series bound Giants teams that I have had the opportunity to see in my lifetime.  Maybe it's because I started this blog this season but I think it has a lot to do with the personalities on this team as well.

The way we follow our team has changed.  I live in Southern California.  Right in the middle of Dodgers and Padres territory (funny how all of those Dodgertown signs seem to have disappeared after the season.).  I only get the Giants on TV if they are playing the Padres or Dodgers.  I also get them on the rare day that they get a national game.  Yet I feel like I know more about this year's team than I have in years past when I could watch practically every single game on TV.  The combination of SFGiants.com, Twitter, MLB Network, and the many blogs dedicated to the Giants all have made me more in tune with what is going on in the world of the Giants.

Go back to 1989 which was the first season that I followed the Giants and I got maybe one game a week on TV, listened to the radio for the other games, and had the game recap and box score to get the inside scoop on the Giants.  That was about it.   Well I did get to stay up and watch them on the news once in a while (I was only 13 after all!).

So again, this is the day that we have been waiting for.  The Giants will take on the Texas Rangers tonight at 4:30 our time.  It has been a great ride and there were many times this season that I thought this day was going to be coming another season.  But it's here and we have areal shot at winning this whole thing despite what all the pundits are telling us.  So get ready and find, comfortable seat, grab your favorite beer, and enjoy some Giants World Series baseball!

Giants in 6!