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 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 face Cubs tonight, then big series against Rocks

My San Francisco Giants (85-67) lost to the Chicago Cubs (69-82) 2-0 last night and once again failed to score. It's been very frustrating to watch and I think that the offense is pressing. Once they get a few runs, then they have tended to pile on as evident on Sunday when Jose Guillen hit a first inning grand slam against the Brewers (70-81) and the Giants cruised to a 9-2 victory. But in Chicago it's been more of the tenseness, but fortunately the pitching has been good enough that we have split the first two games against the Cubs despite scoring only 1 run on a Buster Posey home run Tuesday. Tonight is the series finale and the Giants have to look at it as one they have to win as the Padres (85-66) have moved back in first place by a half-game. Rookie Madison Bumgarner pitches tonight for the Giants. First pitch is slated for just after 5 p.m. MT.

The big series this weekend is in Denver against the Rockies (82-69) who have fortunately lost the last two nights to the Diamondbacks (61-91). But if the Rockies sweep it could still have an adverse affect on the Giants. We should shoot for at least trying to win the series. Oh, and a Giants win tonight would guarantee them at the very least pulling into a tie in the Wild Card with the Atlanta Braves (86-67) who currently lead it by a half-game but are off tonight. So that would be some good news.

Giants get big bounce back win

The San Francisco Giants (73-60) got a nice 5-2 bounce back win over the Colorado Rockies (69-62) at AT&T Park. A loss would have allowed the Rockies to tie the Giants in the loss column so this win allowed them to create a little distance in the standings. There's another big game tomorrow night at 7:15 p.m. MT on FSN Rocky Mountain with Tim Lincecum and Ubaldo Jimenez squaring off. A win would allow for a winning homestand leading into a big 10-game road trip. The Phillies (74-58) won tonight so they remain 1.5 games up on the Giants, but San Francisco did pick up a game on the Padres (76-55) who lost to the Diamondbacks (54-79) tonight. San Diego now leads the Giants by 4 games and has lost a season high six straight games.

Madison Bumgarner threw six strong innings tonight and even hit an RBI double in the 5th inning to give the Giants a 2-1 lead. In such a crucial game, it was very impressive for a kid just barely 21 to have such a good performance.

After Melvin Mora hit a tying home run in the top of the 8th off of Jeremy Affedlt it appeared the Rockies had the momentum. However, the Giants showed that resiliency that they have been showing all year. Andres Torres hit a home run in the bottom half of the 8th that just can't be talked about enough. It was a huge homer in so many ways because it gave the Giants the lead right back as well as stopping the Colorado momentum. Buster Posey's two-run double was big-time as well as it provided breathing room for closer Brian Wilson who had a shut down 9th inning to complete the win.