The Giants get the AT&T Park crowd on their feet early, as Cody Ross singles with one out in the 2nd and Jose Uribe then belts a two-out homer to left. In the 4th, the Rangers get two runners into scoring position with two away on a spell of Lincecum wildness (single, hit batsman and a wild pitch) but Bengie Molina hits a fly ball to the warning track in center to end the inning. Texas would only get one more runner as far as second base, when they pieced together two singles in the 6th, but Lincecum would strike out the side in the that inning to keep the sheet clean, and three innings of one-hit relief followed. Lee was a tough-luck loser as the results of a single mistake; after the Uribe homer, he retired thirteen of the last fourteen Giants to face him and San Francisco only managed one hit after the 3rd inning. San Francisco 2-5-0, Texas 0-6-0. [scoresheet]
Another tightly-played affair went four scoreless innings at the start with Buster Posey's one-out double in the 4th the only hint of trouble for either pitcher, before a moment of defensive ineptitude got Texas on the board in the 5th. David Murphy singled to start the inning and moved to second on Matt Treanor's sacrifice. Mitch Moreland was next to the plate, and he scorched a line drive right at SF first-baseman Aubrey Huff; seeing Murphy scrambling back to second, Huff threw behind him and the ball sailed into left field. Murphy rounded third base through the coaches's stop sign as Pat Burrell chased the ball down in foul ground, but Burrell then threw the ball wide of home plate allowing the run to score. That was the entirety of the scoring as Wilson and Cain mowed the lineups down, until the home team mounted a real threat in the 8th. Uribe led off with a double and, one out later, pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval singled him to third base. Wilson was pulled for the lefty Darren Oliver in order to face Anders Torres, and he got the center fielder to flail at a third strike, and then Neftali Feliz came on to retire Freddy Sanchez for the final out of the inning. That left the game still poised at 1-0 as play entered the 9th inning. when, again, the Giant defense was their undoing. Michael Young drew a leadoff walk from Ramon Ramirez, stole second and then took third base when Nelson Cruz just got under a deep fly ball to center field. That brought up Ian Kinsler, who grounded one down to Uribe at third, but the ball kicked off his glove and through his legs for an error that allowed Young to score. Ramirez apparently didn't handle this adversity well, as the next two batters roped two-base hits, the Rangers scored two more runs, and all that was left was for Feliz to retire the Giants in order in the 9th to level a Series that had seen shutouts in each of its first two games. Texas 4-5-0, San Francisco 0-3-3. [scoresheet]
As the Series moves to Arlington, San Francisco draw first blood, scoring once in the 2nd on Sandoval's RBI single and once in the 3rd on Posey's solo home run. The Rangers get doubles from Young and Vlad Guerrero in the 4th to get a run back, but Sandoval's run-scoring double in the 6th stretches the SF lead back out to two. In the bottom half Texas rap four singles, but a double-play ball off the bat of Guerrero limits them to a single run; this is enough, though, to enable them to tie the score an inning later on Elvis Andrus' solo homer. The Giants get a man to second with less than two out in the 8th and 9th, but fail to score on both occasions while Texas can't conjure up a single baserunner from the 8th to the 10th. That drought ends when Nelson Cruz walks with one out in the 11th, and the game ends when Kinsler follows with a drive over the head of Aaron Rowand for a walk-off triple. Texas 4-10-0, New York 3-13-0. [scoresheet]
After three low-scoring affairs to begin the Series, the bats come into Game Four looking for revenge. Four of the first five Giants recorded safeties, and RBI hits by Huff, Ross and Travis Ishikawa gave San Francisco a quick 3-0 lead. But Vlad Guerrero belted a two-run bomb in the the bottom of the 1st and, after the visitors had tacked on a run on Posey's RBI single in the 3rd, Nelson Cruz crushed a three-run homer to give Texas a 5-4 lead after only three innings. San Francisco bounced back from that setback in the 5th, getting a run-scoring groundout from Posey, a Ross sac fly and a solo homer by Uribe to jump back in front by a score of 7-5. At this point, the pitching finally stiffened up - Bumgarner recovered from is shaky start to retire 12 of 14 after Cruz's homer, and and parade of pen arms shut down the Rangers for the final three innings with Brian Wilson recording his second save to even the Series. Huff had four hits, and scored three times, to lead the Giant attack. San Francisco 7-11-2, Texas 5-8-0. [scoresheet]
Another quick start as the teams traded 1st-inning runs, but a lack of command from Lincecum (five walks) led to trouble in the 4th, with Moreland drilling a ball over the fence after a leadoff walk to Kinsler. The Giants answered right back with RBI doubles from Burrell and Rowand in the 5th, but Young doubled to start the bottom half, took third when Torres mishandled the ball, and scored on Josh Hamilton's single to give Texas a one-run lead through five frames. Guerrero homered to start the home 7th and chase Lincecum, and this time the SF pen could not hold the Rangers down - three hits led to two more runs in the 8th and there was enough breathing space to allow Ron Washington to give the sharp end of his own pen the night off. Hamilton and Andrus each had three hits for Texas, who board the plane for the West Coast needing just one win. Texas 7-12-0, San Francisco 3-8-1. [scoresheet]
The Rangers walked back into town looking like the were ready to win a World Series. Andrus singled to start the bottom of the 1st, Hamilton doubled him home, and Daniel Murphy made it a pair on a base knock to right. A walk and two singles got half of the deficit back for San Francisco in the 2nd, and then they broke out in the 4th. Ross walked to start the inning, and Huff followed with a single, both men moving up on Cain's 58-foot breaking ball. Uribe's ground ball to second scored one run, and Edgar Renteria and Andres Torres each doubled in another. Texas scored once in the 6th to close within a run, and their pitching was giving them a chance - Wilson, O'Day and Feliz combined to retire twelve Giants in a row in the late innings. Sergio Romo walked Murphy with one out in the 8th but got PH Julio Borbon to ground into a force for the second out with Wilson beginning to loosen up to protect the lead in the 9th. But the didn't come to pass, because Moreland yanked a Romo pitch down the line in right and into the seats for a two-run homer that gave Texas the lead and, as it turned out, the Series as the Giants couldn't even get a runner on base in the final three innings. Texas 5-10-0, San Francisco 4-7-0. [scoresheet]
There wasn't a whole lot separating the two teams, with two one-run games and one two-run margin - the five unearned runs allowed by San Francisco didn't help their cause, and Texas doubled their homer output for the Series. In a Series of small margins, the Ranger bullpen made all the difference - their seven relievers combined to pitch 18 innings and allow ZERO runs on eight hits and three walks, with thirteen strikeouts. [Series stats]
In a Series that didn't feature much in the way of standout individual performances, Ranger CF Josh Hamilton led all players with 11 hits, and drove in four runs.
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