A stellar outing from their rookie pitcher and a pair of home runs lifted the San Francisco Giants to a 4-0 win over the Texas Rangers, putting the Giants ahead in the World Series, 3-1.
San Francisco Giants' rookie pitcher Madison Bumgarner was just the second-youngest to throw eight innings in a World Series, shutting out the Rangers, 4-0.
Madison Bumgarner, the Giants’ 21-year-old left-hander, pitched eight shutout innings and struck out six to become the fourth-youngest pitcher to start and win a World Series game. Throwing to fellow rookie, catcher Buster Posey, the Giants’ starting battery was the youngest in a Series since the Yankee’s Spec Shea and Yogi Berra back in 1947.
Bumgarner began the game by throwing four straight balls to walk Elvis Andrus, but he never lost composure. Two groundouts, including one for a double play, got him out of the inning, and he maintained control for the remainder of the game.
The Rangers’ young starter, Tommy Hunter, didn’t come close to matching Bumgarner’s performance. Hunter had to fight hard to make it through four complete innings, throwing more than 20 pitches in each of the first three innings.
He gave up a double to Andres Torres in the top of the third inning, then surrendered a two-run home run to Aubrey Huff to give the Giants a 2-0 lead. The home run was a major blow to a Texas team looking to win two in a row in front of their home crowd and it proved to be a small but insurmountable lead.
The game was never out of reach for the Rangers, but again their bats were silent as Bumgarner held Texas to just three hits.
One of the Rangers’ best chances to score came in the bottom of the seventh, when Josh Hamilton reached on an error by Giants’ third baseman Juan Uribe. Nelson Cruz hit a long single to center with two outs to move Hamilton to second, but Ian Kinsler ended the inning with a line drive out to left field.
The Giants’ added another run when Posey homered to right in the top of the eighth inning to make it a 4-0 ballgame. Texas couldn’t answer, as Bumgarner and closer Brian Wilson each pitched 1-2-3 innings in the bottom of the eighth and ninth to finish the game.
Up 3-1 in the Series, the Giants will be the 2010 World Champions with a win tomorrow night. The Rangers need starter Cliff Lee to have a better outing than he did in Game One, when he gave up five runs in 4 2/3 innings of work. They’ll also need the offense to manufacture runs against Giants’ ace Tim Lincecum.
Power hitters Hamilton, Cruz, and Vladimir Guerrero have been shut down for the majority of the Series, going just 1 for 10 tonight, with four strikeouts. Even in last night’s win, the Rangers had four runs off just eight hits, one of them a three-run homer from Mitch Moreland. In the first four games of the Series, the Giants have scored 26 runs, while the Rangers have just 26 hits.
They’ll need to come out swinging tomorrow against Lincecum and the Giants if they want a chance to get the win and send the Series back to San Francisco.
