2010 World Series

The Texas Rangers have been known for quite some time as a team that usually wins with their bats. They are third in Major League Baseball since 2000 in runs scored and this is a team that has only been to the postseason twice since the turn of the millennium.

When the San Francisco Giants called up Matt Cain in August of 2005, he made his debut as the second youngest pitcher in the major leagues.  Now in his seventh season as a big leaguer, Cain is a seasoned veteran with a laundry list of accomplishments to his credit.  He finished last year's World Championship season with a 13-11 record with a 3.14 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 177 strikeouts, 61 walks, 223 innings pitched and four complete games (including two shutouts).  

It was World Series schwag weekend in San Francisco, with rings and many other special commemorations for the defending champs' first homestand.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The San Francisco Giants World Champion Trophy Tour made a stop at Chukchansi Park in Fresno California on April 5, 2011.

Chuckhansi Park is home of the Fresno Grizzlies, the Triple A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.

Even though the tour stop was in Grizzlies country, the day was all about Giants fans. 

The gates were supposed to open at 12:00 pm. With the line threatening to stretch all the way down the street and around the corner, the staff was forced to open up at 11:30 am.

This past fall, I spoke to my little brother far more often than I normally do.  He’s away at college, I work and we live on opposite coasts, so our schedules rarely seem to match.  

In 2007, Bruce Bochy became the Giants' manager.  In that season, the team won 71 games and finished last in their division.  In each season since then, the Giants have improved their win-loss record while finishing higher in the division. 

Four years ago the Giants were a mess.  They were old, they were brittle, and they were overshadowed by Barry Bonds’ tainted journey to a record nobody outside of the bay really wanted to see broken.

Fans have dubbed most of the Giants’ 2010 season and postseason as torture, but after the team’s impressive World Series victory against the Texas Rangers, the Giants’ faithful at the High Five Pizza Co. restaurant and sports bar felt euphoric.

The Giants won in Texas, 4-0, ending a three game home park advantage in the series. More importantly, with this win, they go up 3-1 in the best of seven and only need to win one of the remaining three games to win the World Series.

Aubrey Huff's two-run shot off Tommy Hunter in the third inning put the Giants ahead to stay early in the game, and Andres Torres (double) and Buster Posey (homer) accounted for the other runs.

Meanwhile, the Rangers bullpen returned to its previous-to-game-3 form as two of the three relievers gave up runs.

Riding the pitching arm of Colby Lewis and a three-run homer from the bat of their No. 9 hitter, the Texas Rangers defeated the San Francisco Giants 4-2 to cut their series deficit to two games to one.

To many, starting pitcher Lewis and rookie first baseman Mitch Moreland (their nine-hole hitter) may not sound like World Series heroes, but tonight their stars shined the brightest before a jubilant crowd at Ranger Ballpark in Arlington.

Well, now it's a series. Returning home to Arlington served to be precisely the remedy to cure the Texas Rangers' woes on the road through the first two games of the World Series.

With a well-played 4-2 victory at home over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, Texas showed their mettle and fought their way back into the series, and now only trail two games to one.

In Game 1, the Rangers scored seven runs, but couldn't pitch, and in Game 2, C.J. Wilson pitched a fantastic game but the Rangers couldn't hit Matt Cain.