World Series gets under way tomorrow night

At left: Cody Ross holds up the NLCS MVP trophy. He and the Giants begin the World Series tomorrow night.

The World Series begins tomorrow night. Game 1 is set for 5:57 p.m. MT with the Texas Rangers at the San Francisco Giants and will be broadcast on FOX. For those of you who aren't near a TV, it can also be heard on ESPN Radio, which in Salt Lake City can be found on AM 700. Back to back Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum will pitch for the Giants and the Rangers will go with their ace, Cliff Lee. It should be a fantastic pitching matchup and I can hardly wait for the game to get started.

Let's hope that Cody Ross can continue his hot streak in which he seems to get an RBI and/or extra base hit every game. I hope the Giants can get to the Rangers' pitching staff, which has some good arms. I think once you get past Lee you have a chance to do some damage. Not to say the guys on their staff don't have talent, it's that the Giants have been able to hit some against similar pitching this year.

I'm going to go ahead and pick the Giants to win this series in six games (knock on wood). The Rangers have a potent lineup and some decent pitching and are a dangerous team to be sure. The Giants, though, clearly have the deeper pitching staff in my opinion, especially in the bullpen. The Rangers' bullpen imploded in Game 1 of the ALCS against the Yankees and has shown some vulnerability and inconsistency throughout the postseason. The Giants' bullpen has been pretty solid for most of the postseason, with Game 2 of the NLDS against the Braves as the exception. The old saying is that good pitching beats good hitting and I think that's what will happen in this series.

This Giants team has shown a lot of heart all year long and is really a tight-knit group which isn't always true with professional sports teams. I think this will also have an impact on how this series goes. So, tomorrow night can't get here soon enough. Let's go Giants!

The Giants win the pennant!

Pictured: The San Francisco Giants celebrate their fourth pennant since moving west.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 tonight to win the National League pennant! Those words just sound great! Awesome!!! I am so excited! This is what it's all about! The Giants are going to the World Series! Wow this feels great!

The Giants beat the Phillies 4 games to 2 to win the National League Championship Series. Brian Wilson got Ryan Howard looking for strike three on a full count with two outs and runners at first and second. As FOX announcer Joe Buck said, that was about as intense as a baseball game could be. You have one of the best closers in the game throwing to one of the best hitters in the game with the winning run on base, two outs and a full count with a trip to the World Series on the line. I'm just glad that Wilson came through and sent the Giants to the Fall Classic. I don't think it's totally sunk in yet, but it's just an amazing feeling.

Juan Uribe hit the game-winning home run with a solo shot off Ryan Madson in the 8th inning to give the Giants a 3-2 lead. Uribe has had a good year with the power numbers and it makes me happy to see him come through. That home run will be long remembered among Giants fans. Good, good stuff.

Jonathan Sanchez struggled in this one, giving up 2 runs in the first inning and couldn't find the strike zone. Sanchez hit Chase Utley with a pitch in the third inning and Utley tossed the ball back to him under-handed. Sanchez took exception to this and the benches cleared. It was kind of fun to see the benches clear (there wasn't a fight) and to see guys on both sides show so much emotion for their teams. That proved to be the last hitter that Sanchez faced as he left with two runners on and nobody out. Jeremy Affeldt got out of that inning unscathed and threw two innings in total. Madison Bumgarner pitched two scoreless innings as well. Javier Lopez threw an inning of his own (he's been simply great for the Giants this season) and Tim Lincecum even came in in relief and recorded an out. Lincecum allowed a couple of runners to get on in the eighth and Brian Wilson came in and got out of that and then finished the save in the ninth. The bullpen threw seven scoreless innings in total -- simply awesome in a playoff game.

Cody Ross was named NLCS MVP and to me this was really an obvious choice. He was the Giants' most productive player, particularly on offense, for the entire series. I'm happy for him. I'd say that's a pretty good for a guy the Florida Marlins simply gave away on a waiver claim this year.

The World Series gets under way on Wednesday at 5:57 p.m. MT on FOX. It will be the Texas Rangers at the San Francisco Giants for Game 1 at AT&T Park. Game 2 is set for the same time on Thursday night. I'm excited the Giants have home field advantage. This should be awesome. Go Giants!

Giants drop Game 5, series goes back to Philly

The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the San Francisco Giants 4-2 tonight in Game 5 of the NLCS. The Giants still lead the series 3 games to 2. Game 6 is Saturday in Philadelphia with the start time yet to be determined (it depends on the outcome of Game 6 of the ALCS tomorrow night). Roy Halladay had a strained groin and seemed to be in trouble every inning for the Phillies but he gutted out six innings and had just enough to earn the win. The Phillies did most of their offensive damage in the 3rd inning, scoring three runs off Giants ace Tim Lincecum who suffered his first postseason defeat.

The Giants' defense let them down in the 3rd inning as Pablo Sandoval missed third base on a bunt attempt by Halladay that would have resulted in a double play and Aubrey Huff misplayed a groundball that ricocheted into center field and allowed two runs to score. The offense had some chances in the first inning as well but Phillies first baseman was able to snare a ball that Huff hit right on the screws for an out. If not for that play, the inning could have been a lot bigger than it was with the one early run the Giants did get. It's bad luck on that play, but part of baseball at the same time.

I thought Halladay showed a lot of heart tonight. It was clear he didn't have his best stuff, but he still only gave up two runs in six innings which to me shows a lot of character. And to find out after the game that he strained his groin in the second inning only makes his performance more impressive.

Cody Ross continues to be the frontrunner for NLCS MVP as he doubled in another run to push his RBI total to 5 for the series. He just seems to keep coming up with big hits in big situations. Let's hope he continues to swing a hot bat in Philadelphia.

I'm still optimistic about the Giants. They have already won in Philadelphia in the series and have Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain to pitch Games 6 and 7 against Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. Hopefully Game 7 isn't necessary, but it's nice to know that Saturday isn't an elimination game. I can hardly wait to see what happens. Game time should be just before 6 p.m. MT if the Rangers close out the Yankees tomorrow and just before 2 p.m. MT if the hated Yanks force a Game 7 in Texas for Saturday night. Speaking of the ALCS, it resumes tomorrow night. Here's the details:

Game 6 -- New York Yankees (Hughes) at Texas Rangers (Lewis), 6:07 p.m. MT (TBS, Rangers lead series 3-2)

And in another sports note, did anyone else notice what kind of beat down #1 Oregon (7-0, 4-0 Pac-10) put on UCLA (3-4, 1-3 Pac-10) tonight? The final score in Autzen was 60-13. The Ducks look really good and really fast. They are going to be tough to beat. I'm not a big Oregon fan per se, but their team sure is fun to watch play.

Cain is able and Ross comes through again for Giants in Game 3

Pictured: Cody Ross once again comes through, this time with an RBI single in the 4th inning.

The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 this afternoon in Game 3 of the NLCS to take a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is set for tomorrow night at 5:57 p.m. MT on FOX. Matt Cain threw seven shutout innings and outdueled Cole Hamels to earn his first career postseason win. Can't say enough about Cain, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said that Cain seemed to get even tougher when he got in more pressurized situations. The rest of the country is starting to see what we've seen for a couple of years now: the Giants have some big time pitching. Javier Lopez pitched a perfect 8th -- I still don't think he gets all the recognition he deserves as he's been absolutely lights out lately. Brian Wilson threw a scoreless 9th to earn the save.

Cody Ross once again came through, this time with a two out RBI single in the 4th inning off Hamels to enable the Giants to draw first blood. He's really dialed in right now -- after the game both Ross and Hamels said they felt it was a pitcher's pitch which makes it even more impressive that he was able to pull it to left field and give the Giants the lead. Aubrey Huff followed with an RBI single of his own and Freddy Sanchez added an RBI single an inning later.

The Giants are in pretty good shape but it's important for them to keep riding this momentum into tomorrow night's game. A win tomorrow night will put them in great shape for a prospective National League pennant.

The Texas Rangers beat the New York Yankees tonight 10-3 to take a commanding 3-1 series lead in the ALCS. The big blow was a three run home run from Bengie Molina to make it 5-3 in the 6th and the Rangers kept adding on after that. Reliever Derek Holland was as big a hero as anyone, throwing 3 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball to hold down the fort. He appropriately earned the win. The Rangers have a chance to clinch tomorrow. That sure would be cool.

Here's the details for tomorrow's games:

Game 5 -- Texas Rangers (Wilson) at New York Yankees (Sabathia), 2:07 p.m. MT (TBS, Rangers lead series 3-1)
Game 4 -- Philadelphia Phillies (Blanton) at San Francisco Giants (Bumgarner), 5:57 p.m. MT (FOX, Giants lead series 2-1)

Phillies even NLCS at 1-1

The San Francisco Giants lost Game 2 of the NLCS last night to the Philadelphia Phillies by a score of 6-1. Roy Oswalt was dominant through eight innings, allowing only one run on a homer by -- who else -- Cody Ross. Jonathan Sanchez was pretty solid for the most part, he did walk three in the first inning but the third walk was granted on a missed call. The Phils were able to get a run when Oswalt ignored a stop sign from his third base coach and Aubrey Huff cut off an on target throw from center fielder Andres Torres that likely would have had Oswalt out by at least ten feet. Huff said he saw the stop sign and his instincts were to cut the ball off. It was a tough play, but the Giants still likely would have lost the game anyway.

After an intentional walk to Jayson Werth in the 7th, Jimmy Rollins hit a bases clearing double to bust the game open and make it 6-1. Even with Rollins struggling lately, he's not the guy you want up there in that situation if you're the Giants. J-Roll loves the big stage and has a knack for coming through in the clutch -- it's what he does. I wasn't surprised to see the big hit there that just missed being a grand slam.

Cody Ross hit his 3rd home run of the series in just two games. He is really dialed in right now and I hope he stays that way when the series shifts to northern California.

You can't understate what a big performance this was from Oswalt to even the series at 1-1 heading back to San Francisco. He was dynamic and seemed determined to get the win. Game 3 is tomorrow afternoon at 2:19 p.m. MT on FOX. The ALCS resumes tonight with it being imperative for the Rangers to get a win with their ace Cliff Lee on the mound. Here's the details:

Game 3 -- Texas Rangers (Lee) at New York Yankees (Pettite), 6:07 p.m. MT (TBS, Series tied 1-1)

Giants take Game 1 of NLCS

At left: Cody Ross celebrates after one of his two home runs Saturday night in Philadelphia.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 Saturday night in Game 1 of the NLCS from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Cody Ross was the big star, clubbing two home runs off Phillies ace Roy Halladay, who had thrown a no-hitter in his previous start. Tim Lincecum went 7 solid innings, yielding 3 earned runs. Javier Lopez retired two hitters in the 8th and Brian Wilson earned a four out save. Halladay allowed 4 earned runs in his outing. Pat Burrell had an RBI double and Juan Uribe an RBI single in the top of the 6th to push the Giants' lead to 4-1. The Phillies countered with a two run homer from Jayson Werth to trim the lead to 4-3 but would get no closer.

The big thing about the first Ross home run was that Halladay had not allowed a hit to that point and the game was in the third inning. I think that hit and that run that gave the Giants the 1-0 lead really helped loosen everyone up. Ross has been huge lately and it's pretty to cool to see from a guy whose acquisition seemed to be almost an afterthought in the minds of Giants fans. Even when Carlos Ruiz tied the game up on a homer, the Giants did not lose their cool and recaptured the lead behind Ross' second long ball. It was interesting to see on the replays on Baseball Tonight that Ross' stroke looked pretty much exactly the same on both of his homers on pitches that were in almost the exact location. That's some good consistency.

The Giants showed resiliency tonight and did not fold in front of a rabid, sell-out crowd and the two-time defending National League Champions. I thought the bullpen did a tremendous job. Brian Wilson has been great, but so has Javier Lopez ever since the Giants acquired him from the Pirates. Lopez has been extremely tough on left-handed hitters and that trend continued tonight when he retired Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in succession in the top of the 8th.

It's nice to take the opener in Philadelphia and have the lead now not to mention having the assurance of going back to the bay area with no worse than a split. A win tomorrow night, however, would be pretty sweet.

In the ALCS today, the Texas Rangers bounced back in a big way from last night in defeating the New York Yankees 7-2 to even that series at 1-1. The Rangers' bats were once again hot and they were able to jump out to a big lead. The difference today was that the bullpen was able to hold the lead, throwing 3 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit baseball. The win was the first home win in Texas Rangers playoff history so it's good to get that out of the way. One cool play in the game came in the first inning when Elvis Andrus stole home on a double steal play to put the Rangers up 1-0 and help give them some momentum. Cliff Lee pitches for the Rangers in Game 3 on Monday night in the Bronx in a very pivotal game in the series.

Here's the stuff for the game tomorrow night:

Game 2 -- San Francisco Giants (Sanchez) at Philadelphia Phillies (Oswalt), 6:19 p.m. MT (FOX, Giants lead series 1-0)

Giants finish off Braves

Pictured: The San Francisco Giants celebrate their NLDS victory over the Atlanta Braves.

My San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 tonight to win their best-of-five National League Division Series 3 games to 1. Cody Ross had a game tying home run in the sixth and then a game winning RBI single one inning later. The Giants once again proved they were resilient and even after falling behind on a couple of different occasions tonight, they fought back and got the win. I thought Ross was huge and I also thought rookie Madison Bumgarner pitched well for us. Brian Wilson walked a couple of guys in the 9th but still nailed down the save and the series.

This is some really cool stuff; this resilient bunch of guys are going to the NLCS, somewhere they haven't been since 2002. For now never mind that it's against the Philadelphia Phillies who have won the last two National League pennants. It's just time to savor the goodness of victory. It's been a great year and hopefully there is some more greatness left in it. The NLCS gets under way on Saturday from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

It was managerial legend Bobby Cox's last game ever and it was sad in a way for a legend and a classy guy to go out. I'm not sad enough to where I won't take the win, but it was just sad to see Cox go. He will be missed.

The big, winner take all Game 5 of the Rays-Rangers series tomorrow pitting starters David Price of Tampa Bay and Cliff Lee of Texas gets under way at 6 p.m. MT on TBS. I highly recommend checking it out.

And now to commemorate this occasion of the Giants moving on, I'm going to listen to the song "Winner" by Jamie Foxx featuring Justin Timberlake and T.I. Because, after all, you know you're looking at a winner.

Giants defense falters in 9th

I remember a line that longtime White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson said when I was watching a game as a little kid: "And the walk. The dreaded lead-off walk." The White Sox were up 4 runs that day in the 9th inning and gave up a "dreaded" lead-off walk that came around to score for the Blue Jays. The White Sox were able to win that game and were fortunate that they had a multi-run lead to work with that day.

Tonight as I watched the Giants take on the Rockies, the term of dreaded lead-off walk was very applicable. The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the 5th off of an RBI single by Buster Posey that followed two walks to start the inning from Rockies pitcher Jorge De La Rosa. In the 9th, Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez walked Dexter Fowler to begin the inning. Fowler came around to score on a triple by Carlos Gonzalez off of Giants closer Brian Wilson. Gonzalez scored on a throwing error that went into the dugout on the play. Huston Street retired the Giants in order in the bottom half for a 2-1 Rockies win.

Fact is lead-off walks often come around to score. You put a guy on base for free to start an inning and the other team still has all three outs to work with to get the guy around. They can even score him without a base hit in some instances with enough well-placed outs. It's just a tough way to start an inning and I feel has a much more negative impact on a team's psyche than does a lead-off single. A lead-off walk feels like you just gave something away and that in itself gives the other team momentum. A single to start an inning isn't optimal, but at least the hitter has earned his way on.

In my book, the key at-bat of the night was Sanchez walking Fowler, who had fallen behind 0-2 and still worked a walk. Granted, this whole thing might have been different if right fielder Cody Ross hadn't misjudged the ball that turned into a triple for Gonzalez. That ball simply should have been caught and instead of being down 2-1 with nobody out it should have remained a 1-0 Giants lead with one out and a man on first. That's a big difference. It could be argued that Fowler would have scored easily on Ryan Spilborghs' triple later in the inning to tie the game and he would have. But the momentum may or may not have been different. And in any case that would have only resulted in a tie game instead of the Giants being behind. It was just a crushing loss. Ross should have made the play and the throwing error by Freddy Sanchez that allowed Gonzalez to score from third didn't help. The defense let the team down and has to be better if they are going to make a playoff push.

The Rockies improved to 69-61 while the Giants dropped to 72-60. The Rockies are now two back of the Giants for second in the West and the Giants still trail the Padres (76-54) by five games. San Diego lost at Arizona (53-79) tonight to extend their season worst losing streak to five games. It's too bad the Giants haven't been able to take more advantage of that. The Phillies (73-58) still lead the Giants in the Wild Card chase by 1.5 games and now trail the Braves (76-55) by 3 games in the NL East. The Reds (76-55) have a pretty good lead in the Central over the Cardinals (69-60) at six games.

All this being said, the Giants are still very much in the Wild Card race and need to turn it around starting tomorrow night against the Rockies. Madison Bumgarner goes for the Giants and is countered by right hander Esmil Rogers of the Rockies.