The Giants had the best team ERA in the majors during the regular season, so perhaps we should have seen something like this coming. But even those who may have picked San Francisco to unseat the defending NL champion Phillies in the NLCS and then knock off Texas in the World Series, as they did last night with a 3-1 Game 5 victory, likely couldn’t have predicted the degree to which they’d dominate the Rangers and quiet the bats that had been so loud during the ALCS.
Dapper Tim Lincecum dazzled last night, striking out ten over eight innings of one-run, three-hit ball, before turning the game over to closer Brian Wilson — a fitting end to a series in which the Giants pitchers consistently dominated the dangerous Texas offense. Josh Hamilton had two hits in this series. Vladimir Guerrero had one. For comparison’s sake, Cliff Lee had one as well.
Speaking of Lee, after trading zeroes with Lincecum for six innings last night, he blinked first — and it would cost the Rangers their season. It would also make MVP Edgar Renteria a World Series hero yet again: Thirteen years after his walk-off single beat the Indians in 1997, he hit the three-run homer last night off Lee, who improved upon his ugly Game 1 start, but still wasn’t good enough as Lincecum when it mattered. The Giants’ so-called “castoffs and misfits” did indeed come through.
And so the San Francisco Giants, 52 years after relocating from New York, are champions for the first time. Go ahead and celebrate, lady. You deserve it.