A day after the second-highest combined run output in any World Series Game 1 (18 total runs, 11-7 win by the Giants), baseball purists everywhere got exactly what they wanted in Game 2, a pitching duel. Giants' right-hander Matt Cain butted heads with Rangers lefty C.J. Wilson, with one mistake pitch by Wilson to San Fran's Edgar Renteria (solo homer) the difference between them. Hits were few, walks were fewer.
So, how did it end up 9-0 Giants? How did a team that scratched and clawed for runs all season (and all postseason) turn into the 1927 Yankees?
First, a blister on a finger on Wilson's pitching hand ruptured, and started to bleed. Then Giants' third basemen Juan Uribe thunked a blooper of an RBI double into right-center field against Darren O'Day, the Rangers' first reliever, to double the score.
Then the Rangers' ship sunk faster than the Titanic in an eighth inning that was a million times worse than the Yankees 5-run eruption in Game 1 of the ALCS that took away a sure-thing win.
But, first, one has to dwell on Matt Cain. Cain, a quiet, unassuming right-hander who looks like Michael Cera (the dweeby actor from Juno and Superbad), who also happens to be one of the unluckiest guys in the world from a pitching standpoint (he pitches for the oft-offensively challenged Giants, after all, and has often been talked about with the asterisk *run support) is becoming the greatest pitching story in a postseason loaded with great pitching stories. Roy Halladay's no-hitter? Yep, got it. Tim Lincecum's 14-strikeout, two-hitter? Gotcha. Cliff Lee dominance's (until last night). Yessir. But how about 21 1/3 scoreless innings? That's where Cain is. He has allowed one unearned run, but, otherwise, has given up no homers, and has held teams to a 1 in 15 chances percentage with runners in scoring position.
Naturally, Cain chugged through the Texas lineup. He got an unseemly lucky break when an Ian Kinsler (Texas 2B) fly ball bounced off the top of the center field wall and caromed backward, back onto the field of play, for a double instead of a home run. But that was a leadoff man in scoring position. No problem. Cain ended up in the dugout with the appropriate goose-egg on the board.
Two innings before that? Michael Young and Josh Hamilton got back-to-back singles with one out, and a sacrifice moved them to 2nd and third. All the Rangers needed was a fly ball! But Cain effectively put away Nelson Cruz (pop up) and Kinsler (fly to right) to get out of it.
Zero. That's Matt Cain's career postseason ERA. 0.00. Looks pretty cool, doesn't it?
"I've been trying to work ahead in the count," Cain said afterward, having pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings and receiving an earth-shaking standing ovation as he left the field. "I really tried to make sure that I made every pitch count from here on out."
When Cain left, it was still just 2-0 in the top of the eighth. Typical Giants' torture. But the Rangers dropped 38 runs on the Yankees in 6 games, and scored two runs against just Brian Wilson, the Giants' famously bearded closer, in the ninth inning of Game 1.
Again, the Rangers' ship sunk. Darren O'Day, a submarine-style right-hander, got two outs, then gave up a single to Buster Posey. Rangers manager Ron Washington summoned lefty Derek Holland-so good in shutting down the Yankees in the ALCS-to pitch to utility player Nate Schierholtz, and that was essentially the ballgame.
Let me be clear: I'm rooting for the Giants. Maybe, as an aspiring journalist, I'm supposed to remain neutral, but, I can't help it. I'm still a fan. I'm rooting for the Giants, but even I was horrified when Holland threw 11 straight balls to three hitters, walking two, and going 3-0 on the next one. He then managed a strike. Then another ball. Another walk, and a run walked in. 3-0, Giants. Holland was pulled, then Mark Lowe came in to pitch. He walked the first man he saw, Cody Ross, allowing another run to score. 4-0, Giants. The Giants then got three run-scoring hits in a row off Lowe and Michael Kirkman--a two-run single by Edgar Renteria, who added to an already impressive World Series resume, a two-run triple by Aaron Rowand, who was pinch-hitting, and an RBI double by Andres Torres. Seven runs in the innings. Seven runs with two outs. 9-0 Giants. Then Freddy Sanchez struck out swinging.
It was so wide-open that Guillermo Mota, a hard-throwing righty who hadn't pitched the entire postseason, came on to pitch the ninth, allowed a walk, and yet nobody got active in the bullpen. Didn't need to. He got the third out.
Now the Giants are up 2-0 as we head back to Texas. They've been beaten 11-7 and 9-0, and it hasn't even been that close. Their two best pitchers have lost. And they're facing a Giants' squad that knows how to torture.
How about the Rangers in seven?
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