Madison Bumgarner became the 5th youngest starter to start a World Series game at 21 years and 91 days old. Taking
the hump on the road, the youngster led his San Francisco Giants to a Game 4 win and find themselves one game away from the champagne celebration.
After winning Game 3 a night earlier, the Rangers had a chance to even the series up at two games apiece but were unable to get anything going on offense against the Giants.
Despite being down 2-1 in the series, Rangers Manager Ron Washington opted to go with Tommy Hunter instead of ace Cliff Lee on three day rest. Like both teams (the Phillies and Yankees) who were down 2-1 in the League Championship Series, the Rangers lost the fourth game with a less than stellar effort from a less-experienced starter.
Tommy Hunter wasn’t terrible and the only real damage the Giants did off of him was a two-run homerun by Aubrey Huff in the third inning but on the night he lasted only four innings; not exactly the kind of performance you want with a key World Series game on the line.
The early 2-0 lead off the bat of Huff was all Bumgarner would need. Although he is the Giants fourth starter, Bumgarner shut down the vaunted Rangers lineup over eight shutout innings. On the night, he allowed just three hits and two walks.
No Rangers player had multi-hit games and only one base-runner, who happened to reach on an error, was able to make it to second base. The Giants turned two double plays, further limiting the Rangers sparse scoring opportunities.
The Giants added insurance runs off the Giants bullpen in both the seventh and eighth innings. Andres Torres and Edgar Renteria each had three hits and Buster Posey hit a solo homerun in the eighth for a little extra insurance.
Brian Wilson entered the game in the ninth and pitched a perfect inning while striking out two batters.
The 4-0 victory was largely due to Bumgarner, but the Giants pitching staff has dominated all series. Only one Texas regular, Mitch Moreland, is hitting over .300 in the series. The heart of the Rangers order (Josh Hamilton, Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz) are all hitting below .200.
Game Five will be Monday Night at 7:30 PM (ET) and with a Giants win, The ReLeaf Herbal Center would have to end it’s free marijuana promotion. Both teams will put their aces on the hill as the Giants get their first opportunity to clinch the title. Cliff Lee (3-1, 2.51) is coming off the worst post-season start of his career and will oppose two-time NL Cy Young Winner Tim Lincecum (3-1, 2.79). The two faced off in Game 1, which was an 11-7 victory for the Giants.
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.
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