San Francisco Giants

All that can be said about this Giants team in 2010 is, "Wow!"

The funny thing is, to be perfectly honest, I had a feeling coming out of spring training the team would do something special this year.

I told my friend to look out for the Giants this year. We were the best team in spring training and on paper and on the field had the best pitching in all of the Majors.

Games like this make baseball the greatest sport there is. Playoff baseball at its best, with one team trying to reach the World Series for the first time since the Barry Bonds era and the other attempting to keep their season alive. Philadelphia was packed full of fans not ready to say goodbye to 2010, while the San Francisco Giants blocked out the enthusiasts in their effort to end the National League Championship Series here and now.

Words can't describe this moment, a team with no real star beating the two-time NL champion. Throughout the playoffs the Giants have been the dark horse to reach the World Series, and now they are here.

Do they have a shot against the Rangers' high octane offense? Yes. You can never write the Giants off. With that, here is why the Giants have a real shot at winning the 2010 World Series.

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The Giants earned the right to face the Texas Rangers in the World Series by beating the favored Philadelphia Phillies in six games, on the road, winning 3-2 on Saturday night to capture their first National League title since 2002.

When the series began, many pundits — including myself — pointed to the Phillies' superior experience, better offense and the fearsome threesome of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

The stage is set for the 2010 World Series as the San Francisco Giants will host the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.  This will mark the first time that the National League Champions possess home-field advantage since the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks.  For the Giants, this is not that big of an advantage.

The San Francisco Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 5 of the 2010 NLCS. The Giants lead the series 3-2 but must now return to Philadelphia for Game 6 and Game 7 if needed. They are only one win away from from earning their fourth National League pennant since the team moved to San Francisco in 1958. It would also be the team's first pennant since 2002.

This was a bad game. This was just a bad game.

Nothing seemed to go right for the Giants in this one.

Panda choked. Two runs scored on Aubrey Huff's fielding error. Jayson Werthless hit a home run. Cody Ross made the last out tagging from second to third in the bottom of the third inning. Both Giants pinch hitters promptly struck out. And Phillies pitching had their way with the Giants lineup.

The Giants scored once on Cody Ross's RBI single, Timmy had one bad inning and that was all she wrote.

The 2010 NLCS has but a short time left before evolving into The World Series, here are ten ways Tim Lincecum and company can expedite the process.

Game Five of the script-busting NLCS begins this afternoon, promptly at 4:57pm.

The skies above AT&T Park will be mostly cloudy and cool, moving into chilly and cold as expected on a Thursday night in San Francisco, October baseball.

The Giants faithful will not blink or suffer a shiver to deter them from witnessing what is about to happen.

At the start of the season, if someone said that the Rangers and Giants would each be one win from the World Series on October 21, would you have believed them? Would anybody have?

But that is the cold, hard truth. The Rangers have a 3-2 series lead, and though the Yankees could easily stage a comeback, Texas is still in control.

The Giants meanwhile, have found their way toward a 3-1 series lead against the mighty Phillies. Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels—so what? The Giants have Lincecum, Sanchez, and Cain.

Buster Posey has announced himself to Major League Baseball. The San Francisco Giants rookie catcher broke out for the Giants in game 5 going four for five with two RBI's, in the Giants 6-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Giants now lead the best of seven series three games to one. 

It was Posey's at-bat in the bottom of the ninth that was the biggest, as Posey singled to right off of Roy Oswalt, sending Aubrey Huff to third, to set up Juan Uribe's sacrifice fly.