The Rangers are the 52nd team to lose the first two games of the World Series. Only 11 of those teams have rebounded to win the series.
View full sizeRangers manager Ron Washington needs his team to find some answers in Game 3 tonight against the San Francisco Giants.ARLINGTON, Texas — If this were a poker game, the Rangers would be down to their last few chips and staring across the table into the cold eyes of a hustler named the San Francisco Kid.
The Rangers are the 52nd team to lose the first two games of the World Series. Only 11 of those teams have rebounded to win the series. The most recent team to do it was the 1996 Yankees.
San Francisco has beaten Texas at the plate and on the mound. Rangers manager Ron Washington watched his best two starters, Cliff Lee and C.J. Wilson, fail to stop a Giants offense that reached the World Series with the nickname "Sweet Torture."
The Giants beat the Braves and Phillies in the postseason not by scoring numerous runs, but dramatic runs. All that has changed. The Giants outscored the Rangers, 20-7, in the first two games at AT &T Park.
Game 1 starter Tim Lincecum wasn't great, but he earned the victory because he was better than Lee. Matt Cain and two relievers threw a four-hit shutout against Wilson and Texas in Game 2.
The series moves to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington for Game 3 tonight. During Friday's workout, the Rangers were preaching confidence and relaxation.
"The last thing we're concerned about is why things went wrong in the first two games," third baseman Michael Young said. "We lost.
"We know how tough this group is so we'll be ready to roll for Game 3. We always assume the next game is going to be our game and that kind of approach has served us well."
The Rangers must win two of the next three games for the World Series to return to San Francisco.
"We expect three victories here," said lefty Derek Holland, who turned Game 2 into a mess in the eighth inning. "We re not backing down from anything."
Early bird: Game 3 will start at 6:57 p.m. today. It will be the earliest start for a World Series game since Game 6 in 1987 between the Twins and Cardinals.
No comment: The New York Times reported Thursday that Giants outfielder Jose Guillen, who was left off the postseason roster, has been linked to shipments of human growth hormone.
MLB reportedly told the Giants that it would be wise to leave Guillen off the postseason roster. If Guillen had made the roster, it might have been at the expense of Cody Ross, the NLCS MVP.
Asked about the report following the Giants' 9-0 victory in Game 2 Thursday, manager Bruce Bochy said: "I can't comment on that. I don't know anything about it."
Bochy took the same approach when asked about Wilson reportedly using Super Glue on the middle finger of his left hand to protect a blister. The blister popped in the seventh inning Thursday, forcing Wilson from the mound with the Giants leading, 1-0.
Explanation, please: So what happened to the Rangers in the first two games?
"We made some mistakes the first game," Washington said.
The mistakes included four errors, two by right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, who did not start Game 2.
"In the second game, Matt Cain will make any lineup [look] flat and he made us [look] flat," Washington said.
Cain pitched seven scoreless innings to run his scoreless streak in the postseason to 21 1/3 innings.
Finally: Some World Series stats to consider:
• The seven runs the Giants scored in the eighth inning of Game 2 were the second most they've scored in 47 World Series games. They scored nine in the seventh inning of Game 3 in 1921.
• The 12-game postseason hitting streaks of the Rangers' Elvis Andrus and Nelson Cruz ended in Game 2.
• First baseman Mitch Moreland has hit in 10 of the Rangers' past 11 postseason games. In that stretch, he's hitting .382 (13-for-34) with four RBI.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: phoynes@plaind.com, 216-999-5158