Your 2010 Giants are 1-0 in the World Series

Wow, what a game!

Started out bad, in that Lincecum seemed all over the place, but he did what the great pitchers do, limit the damage so I wasn't stressing too badly.  Meanwhile, while Lee was giving up no runs, I did not feel like he was the overpowering pitcher everyone was raving about, I thought it was a matter of time before the Giants started stringing hits together.  But I never thought that they would do that the extent that they did!

Then the way they came back, reminded me of Game 3 in 2002's World Series when the Giants roared back after the Angel's battered our pitchers and the Giants took the lead - only to lose in the end...  So while I don't like using the closer so early generally, this gets back to what I've been saying about Bochy understanding the do or die element that exists in these series but that other managers (koff! Dusty) did not seem to get.  Just get the win, worry about tomorrow when it becomes today.

And really, with all the days off between cities plus the rest before the series after the NLCS, Wilson should be OK just from a regular usage basis.  In addition, Wilson says that he is capable of pitching everyday - and remember, he has regularly pitched 1+ inning saves - so if he puts in 0.2 inning on Wednesday, he can put in 1.0 inning on Thursday and not really pitch more than usual.  Then he rests his arm on Friday before we go to Texas.

And the offense!?! How exciting that Freddy Sanchez and Aubrey Huff had the great games they had!  Both their bats were starting to wake up at the end of the NLCS and now they are fully awake. Also Torres got on twice and scored two runs, having our top two guys getting on base really got the offense going.  Cody Ross, of course, had to get a clutch hit and contribute a run.  And Juan Uribe appears to be waking up as well, hitting a 3-run homer that proved to the margin that made the game a real laugher still, and homering in his second game in a row.  Appears Phillies woke up Juan by hitting him in Game 6.  That reminds me of Rich Aurilia in the 2002 playoffs, his bat woke when he was buzzed or hit by pitch.

Luckily, given how well Ogando pitched, the Rangers didn't go to him instead of O'Day, else Uribe might not have gotten his 3-run homer.  Hopefully the Giants can score enough to keep Ogando on the bench, as well as Neftali Feliz.

Hopefully, Lincecum was only tight, but he has pitched more innings than he ever did before, plus technically was pitching on short rest because of his relief stint in Game 6 of the NLCS.  We will probably need him at his best in the next start if we hope to win, can't expect to beat up on Lee again.  Though, if Cain is able to win today, Lee might be pitching in Game 4 instead.

With this win, the Giants continue an amazing feat (blogged on by the peerless Andy Baggarly in his ExtraBaggs blog):  "the Giants haven't trailed in a postseason series yet.  They won their third consecutive Game 1.  For all their torture, they still haven't played a true elimination game in 2010."  And that's because their 162nd game wasn't an elimination game, they were going to play more games, for if they had lost, then all those damn tie-breaker games would have been put in motion.  That was a huge win for the Giants, huge game by Jonathan Sanchez.

Baggarly also noted:  "But tonight's victory was important in a few other respects, too.  It was their 100th win of the season, which is something few teams get to claim.  It also was Bruce Bochy's first World Series victory as a manager.  If you've forgotten, Bochy's San Diego Padres were swept by the Yankees in 1998."

Last Baggarly note:  Tim Lincecum was allowed to wear his lucky, sweat-stained hat that he has worn since he joined the Giants, almost every game if I recall right.  He had to allow a World Series patch to be stitched on the side, though, hope that doesn't destroy the hat when he tries to remove it for future use, or maybe if the Giants win the World Series, he'll finally retire that cap and start with a new cap?

Lastly, I will note that Aubrey Huff's Red Thong has made the cover of today's Wall Street Journal, for those of you who subscribe.  He and his thong are the subjects of the WSJ's famous "Middle Column" series of off-beat human interest stories.  I'll bet he's proud of that!

Game 2:  CJ Wilson vs. Cain

Wow, wonder if Ranger's manager Washington now regrets doing this?  Put his third best pitcher up in a must win situation on the road.  He appears to have been guided by how each pitcher has done during this season by ERA, but as I noted with my PQS analysis, it actually has been the reverse.  It was just some random luck involving DIS starts that bloated their ERA, which really involves luck regarding when the manager takes out the starter and whether his reliever is able to prevent his runners from scoring, and whether his fielders are good or not (like how Vlad didn't get to a lot of balls, or handle them well, but didn't get an error awarded).

But as shut down as Cain has been for us so far, obviously the cautionary tale is yesterday's game by Cliff Lee:  no pitcher is untouched forever if he gets enough starts.  The good news is that Cain has not pitched in a long time.  Unlike Lincecum, he has not had to pitch in more than one game in any series yet and has gotten a lot of rest in-between starts.  Of course, all of our pitchers are pitching waaay beyond the innings that they ever did before, so I'm glad that Bochy has gone with the quick hook on them, which keeps the work load on their bodies minimized.

And if Torres, Sanchez and Huff's bats are waking up, that is good news for the offense, as there will be a steady supply of runners on base for Posey, Burrell, Ross, and Uribe.  Luckily, as I noted, Wilson is good but not really great.  And he might be tiring, he had two well pitched games to start the playoffs, but had a disaster start in his last game.

I would also note that this is his first season starting in a long time, he had been their closer for years, so not only is he beyond his innings like the other starters, but he was way over already during the regular season.  However, I would note that among the Ranger's starters, Wilson was probably the best in delivering DOM starts the last two months of the season, so he obviously conditioned his body well during the off-season in order to start this season.

Still, Cain has been very consistent all season long, and was even better than Wilson the last two months, though I would note that Cain faltered in the first game in the San Diego series with a DIS start.  Still, before that he had a string of 9 consecutive DOM starts, 13 of 14 DOM starts, almost half the season, that is extremely dominating, to say the least.  At least Cain had his hiccup during the regular season and has continued to do well in the playoffs, with a lot of rest.  It really looks good for the Giants in this game, though if Wilson is on his game, it will be another tight nail-biter, but still, Cain, like the Giants have been doing all season and all playoffs, probably will give up just a little less runs.  Hopefully the bullpen can hold it this time.

Go Giants!