World Series Game 1: Giants Rip Cliff Lee, Take Game 1

There is a scene in Rocky IV where after Rocky was getting pummeled by Ivan Drago, he finally breaks through and cuts the big Russian. After the round ends, Duke starts screaming in Rocky’s ear “You see? You see? He’s not a machine, he’s a man, he’s a man!!!”

Once Rocky made Drago bleed, the floodgates opened and Rocky eventually knocked him out. That’s what I feel happened in Game 1 of the World Series last night. The San Francisco Giants cut Texas Rangers’ pitcher Cliff Lee in the third, made him bleed a little, proved he was human and then proceeded to lay the smackdown on the Rangers and Lee.

Uribe went yard again in Game 1

The Giants scored two runs in the third and then knocked Lee out in the fifth as San Francisco beat the Rangers 11-7 to take Game 1 of the World Series.

This was a pretty interesting game as the Rangers got off to a quick start scoring two runs in the first two innings. I really thought the game was over at that point. After all, up until that point, Lee had given up just two runs in his last 33 innings.

Then the bottom of the third happened. An error by Michael Young, a hit batter, an other suspect play by Young (I thought he could have had that line drive by Freddy Sanchez), another single by Buster Posey and just like that the Giants proved Lee was human and the whole complexion of the game changed.

Once the Giants pushed a run across and felt they could get to Lee, the atmosphere in the ballpark changed, and they didn’t fear him. It also helped that Lee didn’t have his best stuff last night.

He left a lot of balls up and out over the plate. His curveball wasn’t as sharp as it usually is, and while the Giants missed a lot of pitches, they also connected on a lot of pitches. You knew Lee didn’t have his best stuff when Juan Uribe had a 10-pitch AB in the bottom of the fourth.

Lee had thrown 60 pitches through three, which was very un-Lee like. It seemed like he was gassed when he got to the fifth and that’s when the Giants ended Lee’s night.

The Giants pounded Lee for four hits in the inning and just like that, they had a 5-2 lead. Uribe, who all of a sudden has turned into Derek Jeter in the playoffs, put the nail in the Rangers’ coffin for Game 1 with a three-run HR off of Darren O’Day.

Here are some other observations from Game 1…

Tim Lincecum was good, nothing special. He gave up eight hits and four runs in 5.2 IP. According to PitchFX, Lincecum only averaged about 90 mph on his fastball.

What on Earth was Lincecum doing on that groundball back to the mound by Nelson Cruz in the first? You know it was bizarre when Uribe of all people gave Lincecum the “What the you know what are you doing” look after the play.

In my preview, I thought having Vladimir Guerrero in right wouldn’t be a big deal. Well, I was wrong. Guerrero was a hot mess in right.

His error on Edgar Renteria‘s single in the eight was a disaster, and then in the same inning, he putzed around with Freddy Sanchez‘s ball and allowed him to get to second. There is no way Ron Washington can put Vlad in right for Game 2.

The Giants became the fourth team in World Series history to have 10 hits, score 10 runs and strike out 10 times in a game. Ironically, all four teams have won.

Kudos to Bruce Bochy for continuing to use closer Brian Wilson in a conventional way. He came into the game last night with a four-run lead and not a “save” situation.

Also note to Bochy: Please don’t ever use Ramon Ramirez again.

Ian Kinsler made his second inexcusable baserunning mistake of the playoffs. Kinsler reached on an infield single to lead off the eighth, but for some reason thought the ball went further than it did on the bad throw to first and got caught in no man’s land. Huff tagged him out and that was that.

Game 2 is tonight and will pit C.J. Wilson against Matt Cain.

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