With a great performance by Matt Cain and continued offense from unexpected sources, the San Francisco Giants took a 2-0 lead over the Texas Rangers with a 9-0 victory in Game 2 of the World Series.

Cain shut down the Rangers vaunted lineup, throwing 7.2 scoreless innings and allowing just four hits on the night. Although he wasn’t necessarily dominant, having only two strikeouts, he kept his pitch count low and was able to work deep into the game.

The Giants scored first in the fifth inning on a solo homerun from Edgar Renteria then scored again in the seventh inning after C.J. Wilson issued a leadoff walk and the bullpen was unable to keep the run from crossing the plate. On the night, Wilson had a solid start, allowing two runs in six frames.

Things unraveled for the Rangers in the eighth inning. After Darren O’Day struck out the first two batters he faced, the roof caved it. Buster Posey singled with two outs, prompting Ron Washington to call on Derek Holland to face the left-handed Nate Schierholtz. Holland faced three batters, and walked all of them, turning in one of the worst relief appearances in series history.

Mark Lowe relieved Holland and allowed a walk and a single. Michael Kirkman relieved Lowe who allowed a pair of back-breaking extra base hits to Aaron Rowand and Andrew Torres before finally getting out of the inning. By the time the 8^th inning was done, the Giants had seven runners cross the plate giving their bullpen a ton of insurance against a good Rangers lineup.

Giants reliever, Guillermo Mota, then came into a non-pressure situation and pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing just one walk. On the night, the Rangers bats finished cold with just four hits and three walks.

The Giants actually had less hits than runs ending with eight on the night but were aided by six walks. Edgar Renteria was the only Giants player with multiple hits and drove in three on the night.

The Giants took full advantage of getting the first two games at home and now head to Texas up 2-0. In the regular season, the Rangers were much better at home than on the road, and will look to turn things around.

Game 3 will be Saturday Evening at 6:30 (ET). The Giants will start Jonathan Sanchez (0-1, 2.93) against the Rangers Colby Lewis (2-0, 1.45). Lewis pitched a gem against the Yankees to send Texas to the World Series, and will look to help the Rangers avoid a 3-0 hole.

Used with permission of the author.

Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Although the Texas Rangers struck first with a 2-0 lead on Tim Lincecum, the San Francisco Giants jumped all over Cliff Lee to take Game One of the 2010 World Series. With a couple of Cy Young award winners facing off, Game One of the Fall Classic was expected to be a pitcher’s duel at spacious AT&T park, but neither hurler was on top of their game.

The Rangers got to Lincecum in the first inning when Vladimir Guerrero hit an RBI single to drive in Elvis Andrus. Texas scored again in the second inning with hits from Bengie Molina and Cliff Lee before Andrus hit a sacrifice fly.

The way Lee had been pitching this postseason, nobody would have been surprised if he could make the Rangers early 2-0 lead stand up. Instead, the Giants fought back and tied the game up in the third following an error, a hit batter and two base hits.

The Giants broke the game open in the fifth inning when the wheels came off for Lee. In that Giants bottom of the fifth with two outs and trailing 3-2, the “castoffs and misfits” had six consecutive hitters reach base, driving the score to 8-2. The biggest blow was a three-run homerun from Juan Uribe off Darren O’Day who had replaced Lee.

Lee’s final line was 4.2 innings pitched; seven runs allowed (six earned), one walk and seven strikeouts.

The Rangers, who had one of the best offenses in the league got two runs back in the top of the sixth off Lincecum who finished with 5.2 innings pitched and four earned runs allowed while picking up the win.

An inning after Tony Bennett came out and did his rendition of God Bless America, the Giants added three more runs in the eighth on four hits and two errors by Vladimir Guerrero. Texas had four errors on the night and Guerrero struggled in right field showing signs of normally being a designated hitter.

Texas mounted one final comeback attempt in the top of the ninth, scoring three runs on the Giants bullpen until Brian Wilson settled down and recorded the final two outs in a non-save situation, getting Ian Kinsler to pop out to end the game for an 11-7 Giants win.

Freddy Sanchez (three doubles and a single) and Andres Torres (three hits) had half of the Giants 14 hits on the night. Bengie Molina and Mitch Moreland were the only Rangers with multiple hits with two each.

Game Two will be Thursday night at 7:30 (ET). C.J Wilson (1-1, 3.93 this postseason) will get the ball for Texas against Matt Cain (1-0, 0.00). Wilson has never faced the Giants in his career and Cain won his only career start against the Rangers, pitching eight shutout innings.

Used with permission of the author.

 Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The 2010 San Francisco Giants have been labeled more times than a re-gifted toaster. Called “misfits” and “castoffs”; their manager even refers to them as “the dirty dozen.” One Philadelphia writer called them a bunch of “rodeo clowns” but their most enduring title will surely be National League Champions.

The Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win the NLCS and they only needed six games to do it. This battle ended with an epic 3-2 win in Philly. In the end, a series dominated by starting pitching, was decided by the bullpens and one clutch hit.

Juan Uribe waved his magic wand again, this time in the 8^th inning when he drilled a Ryan Madson slider just over the right-field wall at Citizen’s Bank Park to momentarily silence the raucous Philly faithful.

The Giants relied on their strength, pitching, that included relief appearances by Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner to hold the Phillies’ potent offense to eight hits and strand 11 runners.

None were more critical than the pair left on when Brian Wilson painted a knee-high strike past one of the game’s best run producers, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, on a 3-2 pitch to end the series. That pitch muted one of MLB’s most hostile venues as the Giants stormed the field, celebrating the franchises’ fourth NL Pennant since moving west.

“I knew I was going to throw everything at them,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “This is a huge game. To go into a Game 7, you knew the momentum would be on their side. We were going to do all we could to win.”

Uribe, a journeyman infielder who was just 3-for-27 in the postseason, was the hero for the second time in three games.

Getting off to a shaky start, Giants’ starter Jonathan Sanchez gave up two runs in the first then after a game-tying rally in the third, the lefty again struggled. After a meeting from pitching coach Dave Righetti, Sanchez hit Chase Utely with a pitch in the back. After the two exchanged words, the benches cleared. Bochy then elected to remove the over-hyped Sanchez, and Jeremy Affeldt put out the fire just minutes after the altercation.

The Giants who were 7 ½ games out of first place early in July, whose GM has been fired millions of times by sports-talk callers and bloggers, and whose collection of “castoffs” weren’t good enough for anyone else, found a way to dispatch of the two-time reining NL champion Phillies, grab the pennant and hoist the Warren C. Giles trophy.

Another cast-off, Cody Ross stood soaked in champagne, holding his NLCS MVP Trophy after the game, “I could never imagine being in a situation like this,” said Ross. “I’m just going to cherish it. This is a special time for me. I felt like a 10-year-old kid. I was screaming, running and jumping as high as I could.”

Going into the World Series match-up against the Texas Rangers, these Giants have a legitimate chance to jump to that final rung on the ladder.

Used with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC