Monday, November 1, 2010

Renteria, Lincecum Finish Off Rangers; Giants Take World Series

Players of the Day for Monday, November 1, 2010

World Series Game Five: Giants 3, Rangers 1

Break out the confetti! The Giants are world champions!

Edgar Renteria (left) drove a seventh inning Cliff Lee offering just over the wall in left center field, and the Giants were on their way to clinching the World Series with a 3-1 win over Texas, beating the Rangers four games to one.

The homer by Renteria, his second of the World Series, came with two aboard and two outs in the top of the 7th. Lee and Tim Lincecum (right) had dueled in a scoreless tie up until that point.

In the bottom of the frame, Nelson Cruz got one back for the Rangers with a solo homer to left field. Lincecum walked the next batter, Ian Kinsler, but regained his composure and struck out David Murphy and Bengie Molina to end the inning. After setting down the Rangers in order in the 8th, Lincecum turned the ball over to Brian Wilson, who struck out Josh Hamilton, got Vlad Guerrero to ground harmlessly to short and then fanned Cruz for the final out and the first Giants' World Series championship since 1954.

Lincecum won games one and five, and Renteria had key homers in games two and five. In game two, which the Giants won 9-0, Renteria again broke a scoreless tie with the long ball, a solo shot in the 5th inning.

While Lincecum didn't pitch his best in game one, an 11-7 hit-fest, he was on the money in game five, allowing just the one run on three hits, waling two and striking out ten.

Renteria was named the MVP of the series. The Giants' shortstop, who had the game winning hit for the Marlins when they beat the Cleveland Indians in seven games in 1997, batted .412 for the series, going 7-for-17 with six RBI and two homers.

So ends another season of baseball and another season for Baseball On Deck's Players of the Day. We'll see you back here in about four and a half months, when the boys of summer start stretching in Florida and Arizona.

Enjoy the off-season. This one's been fun.