SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants haven't rewritten history yet, but they enthusiastically cleaned their erasers and sharpened their pencils Wednesday night.
The National League champions took their initial step toward ending the franchise's 55-year World Series drought by stunning the Rangers with eight unanswered runs, including six in the fifth inning, in an 11-7 triumph in Game 1 of the 106th Fall Classic.
The seventh matchup of Cy Young Award winners in a postseason series opener dissolved in a stream of extra-base hits, including six by the Giants. San Francisco right-hander Tim Lincecum improved to 3-1 in this postseason despite yielding four Texas' runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. Texas left-hander Cliff Lee, who entered the game with a 0.75 ERA, was charged with seven runs (six earned) in 4 2/3 innings and absorbed his first postseason defeat in four decisions.
Juan Uribe, whose eighth-inning homer provided the winning run in last Saturday's clinching victory of the NL Championship Series at Philadelphia, pounded a three-run homer to punctuate the Giants' big fifth that broke a 2-2 tie.
More importantly from the Giants' perspective, their offensive outburst propelled them toward the ultimate triumph they seek. The Game 1 winner has proceeded to win the World Series in 11 of the last 13 years, including six of the past seven.
The Giants seemed determined to continue that trend. Their free-swinging tendencies worked to their advantage against Lee, a strike-throwing machine who gave San Francisco plenty to hit. Lee's vulnerability was particularly evident during the Giants' fifth-inning rally, as they scored all but one of their runs with two outs.
Overwhelming output
Most runs in an inning by the Giants in a World Series game
Date Game Opp. Inning Runs
10/7/21 WS 3 NYY Seventh 8
10/27/10 WS 1 TEX Fifth 6
10/9/37 WS 4 NYY Second 6
10/15/12 WS 7 BOS First 6
With one out, Andres Torres launched the uprising by doubling to left field. He scored on Freddy Sanchez's third double of the evening, which ended Lee's 16-inning postseason scoreless streak.
Lee retired Buster Posey on a called third strike, but Pat Burrell walked on a 3-2 pitch to prolong the inning. NLCS Most Valuable Player Cody Ross singled to center on Lee's 100th pitch of the game, delivering Sanchez. Burrell hustled home as Aubrey Huff also singled. Since Huff's left-handed-batting brethren had entered the game 2-for-25 off Lee in this postseason, that spurred Texas manager Ron Washington to replace his ace with sidearmer Darren O'Day.
Up came Uribe, who O'Day retired in their only regular-season confrontation. It didn't matter. Uribe drove a 2-0 pitch into the left-field seats, thrilling the heavily pro-Giants audience that packed AT&T Park. It was the Giants' highest-scoring Series inning since they also amassed six in Game 4 against the Yankees in 1937.
A weird first inning began uncomfortably for Lincecum, who yielded Elvis Andrus' single on the game's third pitch before walking Michael Young on a full-count delivery.
After Josh Hamilton's dribbler to first base advanced the runners, Vladimir Guerrero slapped a grounder up the middle that Lincecum apparently tried to deflect by kicking it. He indeed changed the ball's course, but not successfully. It caromed off the inside of his left knee and trickled toward the right side of the infield, scoring Andrus and moving Young to third base.
Nelson Cruz tapped a swinging bunt toward third base that Lincecum quickly grabbed. Since Young had strayed toward home, Lincecum appeared primed to throw him out easily and perhaps could have tagged him out himself. But he inexplicably held the ball as he chased Young back toward third base and let him arrive there safely, though Uribe and Edgar Renteria both stood near the bag awaiting a throw.
That loaded the bases, but Lincecum and the Giants escaped as Ian Kinsler grounded into an inning-ending double play.
More sloppiness helped the Rangers add a second-inning run. Ex-Giant Bengie Molina, looking as if he knew exactly what he was doing, led off by lining an opposite-field single to right. One out later, Molina moved to third as Lee faked a bunt, pulled back his bat and doubled to right-center. It was the first World Series double by an American League pitcher since 1997, when Cleveland's Chad Ogea recorded one in Game 6.
Andrus' fly to center field scored the ponderous Molina, who capitalized on Andres Torres' throw that veered high and wide beyond the right-handed batter's box.
The Giants recovered from their shaky start to pull even in the third. Young fumbled Renteria's grounder for an error. Continuing his shaky night, Lincecum popped up a sacrifice-bunt attempt. But after Lee nicked Torres with a pitch, Sanchez seized upon that lapse by lining his second double, a bolt into the left-field corner that scored Renteria and moved Torres to third. Posey's single to left-center delivered Torres, but Sanchez's first step was back toward second.
(source:/mlb.mlb.com)
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