The Giants win the World Series!

Pictured: The 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants.

The San Francisco Giants won the World Series tonight, beating the Texas Rangers by a score of 3-1! The Giants won the series 4 games to 1. What an awesome feeling this is! It's great to have my favorite team win its first World Series since 1954. I'm so happy about all this right now. It's still pretty surreal.

Edgar Renteria was named World Series MVP and for good reason. Renteria hit a three-run home run off of Cliff Lee in the seventh inning tonight to break a scoreless tie and put the Giants ahead for good. I sort of screamed I was so excited when that ball went out. Renteria further solidified his reputation as a clutch player. And let's not forget that he hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth against the Braves to tie the game in the Giants' home opener this year (which they won in extra innings). So in a way it's kind of full circle. Renteria didn't have the best year of his career and didn't really even play that much down the stretch. But what a World Series he had. I'm glad he was in the lineup and I'm glad he was on my team.

Not to be lost in all this was how well Tim Lincecum pitched tonight, throwing eight innings of 1-run baseball and recording ten strikeouts. It was a masterful performance on the biggest of stages. Lincecum showed why he has won the last two Cy Young Awards and why he is the ace of the staff. Brian Wilson continued his excellent postseason with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to officially clinch the championship.

The Giants' pitching was really a big story this series. You heard a lot about the Rangers offense and how potent it was and for good reason, but people overlooked how good this pitching staff really is. The rotation is great and what really set this group apart from other playoff teams was its dynamic bullpen. The old baseball saying is that good pitching beats good hitting and you saw that in this World Series.

Well, that's all for now, but I'll leave you with this thought: The San Francisco Giants are World Champions! Yes!

Giants one win away from glory

Pictured: Giants rookie pitcher Madison Bumgarner delivers a pitch during Game 4 of the World Series Sunday night in Texas. Bumgarner threw eight scoreless innings.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers 4-0 last night in Game 4 of the 2010 World Series in Arlington, TX. The Giants now lead the Series 3 games to 1. Rookie pitcher Madison Bumgarner was the story and pitched eight shutout innings in his World Series debut. Bumgarner was in complete control throughout and seemed completely unfazed that he was pitching in the World Series. I, like just about everyone else, was impressed that he shut down such a potent offense in what is considered a hitter-friendly ballpark. It's nice to think that the Giants don't have to worry about him or any of their other starters becoming free agents anytime soon.

Aubrey Huff supplied the first of the offense with a towering two-run home run in the third inning off Rangers starter Tommy Hunter. Andres Torres had an RBI double in the seventh and Buster Posey added a solo home run in the eighth. Brian Wilson worked a scoreless ninth in relief of Bumgarner. Edgar Renteria had another solid night, playing good defense at short stop and going 3 for 4 at the plate. He's having quite a World Series and is further solidifying his reputation as a clutch player.

Game 5 of the World Series is tonight in Arlington at 5:57 p.m. MT on FOX. The Giants will start their ace, Tim Lincecum, and the Rangers will go with theirs in Cliff Lee. We'll see if we get that dynamic pitching matchup everyone thought we would get in Game 1. Both guys are very, very good.

I'm pretty excited because the Giants are only one win away from winning their first World Series since 1954 when they were the New York Giants. They moved to San Francisco in 1958. It would be cool to win it at home but the way I see it is you have to go for it starting tonight on the road. You don't want to give the Rangers anymore chances than you have to. I'll be watching tonight. You should be too.

Giants take 2-0 World Series lead

Pictured: The Giants celebrate after taking a 2 games to none lead in the 2010 World Series.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers 9-0 tonight at AT&T Park in San Francisco to take a 2 games to 0 lead in the 2010 World Series. Matt Cain pitched 7 2/3 innings and still has yet to allow an earned run all postseason. He's been lights out. Edgar Renteria broke a scoreless tie in the middle innings with a solo home run once again proving he is a clutch player. Juan Uribe singled in another run later on. The floodgates really opened in the 8th inning against the Rangers bullpen which surrendered 7 runs in the inning, all after there were initially two outs and nobody on base. I said going into the series that the Rangers bullpen was weaker than that of the Giants and so far it has proven true.

The Giants' pitching staff has continued to throw well and tonight the old saying that good pitching beats good hitting was true. People have been hyping up the Rangers' offense, but I don't think they fully grasped what a great pitching staff the Giants have. That's been the recipe for success all year long, along with some timely hitting. The Giants have a lot of intangibles on this team as well and seem to have a real family atmosphere that is conducive to winning. Their offensive numbers may not blow you away, but it seems like so many times this year when the team has needed a hit, they have gotten that hit. Same thing with getting big outs and so forth when those have been needed. That can't always be put into statistics. Take tonight, with runners on 2nd and 3rd and only one out in the 6th inning with the Giants clinging to a 1-0 lead. The Rangers don't even have to get a base hit to score with less than two outs. Cain induced a harmless pop up and then ended the threat with a fly out. No harm, no foul and the Giants went on to the win.

I thought Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson pitched a pretty good game himself, but just was outdueled by Cain. As I mentioned, things didn't really unravel substantially for Texas until the 8th inning with the bullpen already in the game.

The series now shifts to Texas. Game 3 is Saturday and note that the start time is an hour earlier, first pitch is scheduled for 4:57 p.m. MT from Arlington, TX. The game will be broadcast on FOX. Let's go Giants! Keep this thing rolling!