More and more Giants

An amazing two nights of baseball it has been by the shores of McCovey Cove as the Giants take a (2-0) series lead in the best of seven match-up against the Texas Rangers.

Many of you are watching baseball for the first time -- let's not kid ourselves -- so there's a lot of things out there tonight you could learn from if you are ever to play baseball (or softball).Some of these may sound familiar to those who have played.

Before we get into the inside baseball analysis, how about Edgar Renteria? Here is a true story. I was at a Giants game in late July when Renteria struck out to end the game. I was there the next night, this time with another friend, and I said to him, "Renteria is so (bad)," but the word I used wasn't bad. I told my friend, if Renteria did anything memorable tonight, I'd buy him a Renteria t-shirt.

Up came Renteria in the 8th inning, and he clobbered a pitch into the left field bleachers, almost close to where he hit that ball tonight. And the result...

 

The bottom line is Renteria is a clutch player who comes up big when you need him to, none more evident than this playoff. If you watched Game 3 vs the Phillies, his base-hit started a rally. Last night, he made an incredible play to his left up the middle to take a base hit away, and then the biggest at-bat of the night when he sent a majestic shot over the Chevron cars on the left field wall.

As a rookie, Renteria had the game-winning hit in the 1997 World Series with the Florida Marlins and he was also on the 2004 National League Champions St. Louis Cardinals squad. 

Matt Cain was a beast tonight. The secret -- he threw strikes. The Texas Rangers bullpen, awful -- they didn't throw strikes.

Throw strikes and more often than not, you have the edge. 

One player who will get a thumbs up from me is Cody Ross. His walk that led to the second run of the game was huge. He kept on fouling off pitch after pitch and eventually drew a walk. He came around to score to make the game 2-0 at that point. 1-0 and 2-0 is a HUGE difference.

And finally, Justin Bieber. Giants cap, Rangers jacket..talk about multiple personalities. Good one guy...

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...SIGHTS AND SOUNDS FROM GAME ONE