Game Recap

This truly is the Year of the Pitcher. Some of the best in baseball have tossed no-hitters and perfect games, but so have relative unknowns. Texas Rangers starter Colby Lewis didn’t throw either on this night, but his start—as so many outings have this postseason—exemplified how dominant those gracing the mound have been.

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.

The home cooking was especially tasty for the Texas Rangers on Saturday night, as they finally got on the board to make this a series heading into Game 4 with a 4-2 victory over the Giants in Arlington.

San Francisco had taken the first two games at home, slugging around Cliff Lee in Game 1 and dominating Texas 9-0 in Game 2.

Saturday continued the trend of home-field advantage, as the Rangers used two home runs to win and cut the Giants' series lead to 2-1.

The Giants entered their third 2010 postseason series as the underdog, again. Everybody was told the Giants can't score runs. The Rangers will light up Giants pitching.

In two games, the Giants have outscored the Rangers 20-7. San Francisco had only scored 30 runs in their first 10 games leading up to the World Series.

Apparently the pitchers duel that everyone was expecting to occur Wednesday night caught a late flight to San Francisco and arrived Thursday evening. With Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee facing off in Game 1, no one could have predicted the 11-7 slug-fest that took place in the World Series opener.

Game 2 of the 2010 World Series belonged to Edgar Renteria, Matt Cain and the San Francisco Giants from start to finishing Thursday.

Cain tossed a scoreless gem in 7 2/3 innings of work to vault himself into some historic company, extending his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 21 1/3 innings.

But it was the 35 year-old shortstop from Columbia who absolutely stole the show.

Much has been made of the Giants' Tim Lincecum and the Rangers Cliff Lee, and with good reason.

But after that matchup failed to produce the pitching duel that was expected, the Giants Matt Cain ended up being more than able to fill the ace role for San Fran as they took a two games to none lead in the World Series, winning 9-0.

Look, it's about time we recognized Cain for the stud pitcher he is. After finishing the 2010 season with a 3.14 ERA and 177 K's with 61 walks in over 223 innings, this Giants number two starter has been number one in the postseason.

Before the 2010 World Series began last night, the common consensus was the San Francisco Giants had to score more to have a chance of winning the World Series.

The Giants pitching staff is excellent, but could they win a slugfest against the offensive prowess of the Texas Rangers?

Game 1 was labeled as an all-time pitching showdown. The matchup between Texas Rangers ace Cliff Lee and the San Francisco Giants two-time defending NL Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum was billed as a classic to be.

There's something beautiful about the Giants.

More than the beards and the rally thongs, an intangible has sparked not only this team but an entire city. The Giants have been the underdog this entire season. But time and time again they have shown that they are a real championship contender.

With that, let's break down the Giants' Game 1 victory over Cliff Lee and the Rangers.

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Game 1 of the World Series had all the feel and all the hype of NLCS Game 1, except now one of the greatest potential postseason pitchers (Roy Halladay) had been replaced by the third greatest postseason pitcher of all time in Cliff Lee, who had posted a 7-0 record with a 1.25 ERA, third to only Sandy Koufax and Christy Mathewson. 

Tim Lincecum had similarly shown that he was no postseason slouch, posting a 2-1 record with a 1.98 ERA. His opener was an electric 14 K complete game two-hit shutout.