Major League Baseball: The Giants Outperform the Rangers to Win World Series Opener
The World Series opening game was not a matchup of arguably the best two pitchers in the MLB. It was more like batting practice for the San Francisco Giants against the Texas Rangers pitcher, Cliff Lee.
Juan Uribe hit a long home run, Aubrey Huff and Cody Ross hit liners up middle field and Freddy Sanchez had a hitting frenzy.
So much for the incredible Lee.
A game that was supposed to be a duel between Lee and Tim Lincecum was won by the Giants, who simply outplayed the Rangers on Wednesday night, 11-7.
Former Giants player Barry Bonds had plenty to cheer about while watching from the game. Rangers president Nolan Ryan could do nothing more than sit in distress.
San Francisco had made it to the World Series with a combination of excellent pitching and one run wins, but none of that came into play during this game.
The last time the Giants had acquired six runs in a single inning during a postseason game was during the 1937 World Series.
Neither team seemed to be prepared for the big game at the start, but inexplicably, the Giants seemed to play a lot better throughout the rest of the game than the Rangers did.
The game started with Lincecum pitching for San Francisco. On a single by Vladimir Guerrero, Elvis Andrus was able to score, giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
In the top of the second, the Rangers’ Andrus hit a sacrifice fly to centre field allowing Bengie Molina to score, putting them even further ahead at 2-0.
With Lee pitching to San Francisco in the bottom of the third, an error by third baseman, Michael, allowed Edgar Renteria to get to first base. Andres Torres was hit by a pitching, walking him to first base and allowing Renteria to advance to second. Sanchez
hit one of his six doubles on the next pitch, allowing Renteria to score, Torres to third, and Sanchez to second. Rookie Buster Posey then hit a single to center field, allowing Torres to score and Sanchez to get to third. However, Pat Burrell and Ross both
struck out. The score was now 2-2.
The next inning in which a run was scored was the bottom of the fifth, with the Giants at bat. This was the first time that the Giants scored six runs in a single inning since 1937. The inning started with Lincecum grounding out to the shortstop. Next up
was Torres, who hit a double to left field, putting him on second. Sanchez then hit his second double deep to centre field allowing Torres to score. Posey then struck out and Burrell walked, with Posey hitting a single. This allowed Sanchez to score and Burrell
to advance to second.
Huff then hit a single to centre field, with Burrell running home and Ross to second. That was enough for the Rangers, after which Darren O’Day relieved Lee. On his next pitch to Uribe, he hit a 409 foot homer to left centre, allowing both Ross and Huff
to score as well. At the end of the fifth, the score was 2-8, to the Giants.
Texas attempted to start a comeback in the sixth, with Ian Kinsler scoring off a double by Molina and then Molina scoring off of a single by David Murphy. The score was now 4-8, still to San Francisco.
The next point scored was in the bottom of the eighth, with the Giants at bat. With Mark Lowe pitching for the Rangers, Renteria hit a single to right field and then to third after a pitching error by right fielder, Guerrero. Travis Ishikawa hit a double
to deep centre field, allowing Renteria to score. Sanchez then delivered his third double of the game, allowing Ishikawa to score. Nate Schierholtz then singled to centre field, allowing Sanchez to score one of his four points in the game.
At the end of the eight, the score was 4-11, to the Giants.
In the top of the ninth, the Rangers racked up three runs, Guerrero hitting a sacrifice fly to right field, allowing Julio Borbon to score, followed by Nelson Cruz hitting a deep double to right centre field, pushing both Andrus and Josh Hamilton to score,
making the score 7-11.
The Giants won with 14 hits for 11 runs and 2 errors, as opposed to the Rangers who had 11 hits for 7 runs and 4 errors, with a final score of 7-11.
Usually, the team that won the World Series starter would triumph in the championship 61 percent of the time.
We’ll just have to wait and see if that can be proven once again.
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