The San Francisco Giants seem to be begging for a new name. It seems they want to be called the Giant Killers. 

First they stormed back from far behind the long-time National League West-leading San Diego Padres to capture the West division title on the last day of the season. (OK. the Padres aren’t really giants, and the Giants could have won the division more handily had they not stumbled twice first on the season’s final weekend. Still, they were 6 games behind the Padres in late August.) 

Then they spoiled Bobby Cox’s dream of winning a gold trophy as his retirement gift by edging (three one-run victories) the Atlanta Braves in the first round of the NL playoffs. 

Next they took on the vaunted Philadelphia Phillies, expectant of parlaying—and widely expected to parlay-ify—their three aces into a third-straight National League pennant, and all they did was shock and dismay the Phils by trumping each ace at least once with timely hitting and masterful pitching of their own. 

For their next magical trick, last night, the Giants took on perhaps their single most formidable challenge, pitcher Cliff Lee, he of the 7-0 postseason record over the past two years, going for his record-tying seventh straight postseason start with a win; he of the 1.26 postseason ERA, only the third-best ever; he of the dominating postseason performances against every team he’d faced.  

The Giants offense, cobbled together from a bunch of spare parts, with only one starter (Edgar Renteria) who had ever appeared in an all-star game—though four years removed (and, yes, Buster Posey will be there soon)—was hardly expected to be able to overcome the precision pitching of Lee or to be able to keep up with the Texas Rangers’ roster of sluggers. 

But that’s why they play the games, folks. 

The Giants shook off a two-run Rangers first (just as they’d shaken off a two-run Phillies first in Game 6 of playoff round two to win the National League pennant) and combined an error, a rare hit batter by Lee, a double, and a single to tie the game in the bottom of the third. 

That inning, an uncharacteristic 32-pitch marathon for the normally cruising Lee (that’s a three-inning pitch count for him) showed that the tall lefthander was not on his game last night. 

Then came the fifth. After getting opposing starter Tim Linceum to ground out, Lee gave up back-to-back doubles to Andres Torres and Freddy Sanchez (one of Sanchez’s three two-baggers and four hits overall) to fall behind 3-2. The game was still salvageable after Posey struck out for the second out.  

Après Buster, le déluge: walk to Pat Burrell, single by Cody Ross to score Sanchez (4-2), and single by Aubrey Huff to score Burrell (5-2). Shell-shocked Texas manager Ron Washington took Lee out in favor of Darren O’Day, he of the quite effective 2.03 ERA during the regular season. Lee had no sooner settled into his unfamiliar seat on the bench when Phillie Killer Juan Uribe blasted a 409-foot bomb to left center to give the Giants an 8-2 lead, leave the once-mighty Cliffy tagged with seven runs, six earned in fewer than six innings (those six earned runs were nearly double what he’d yielded in eight previous postseason starts), and sent the orange-and-black Giants fans into a pom-pom and towel-waving frenzy.  

The Rangers had to wonder if Halloween had come a bit early this year. 

Then, the Giants had to realize late in the game that the Rangers were not, unlike the Phils, going to stand there and take pitches. They’re aggressive, and they can hit.  

Lincecum committed the cardinal sin after your team scores big of giving up a two-spot in the top of the sixth, cutting the Giants lead to 8-4 and showing that, after his dominating first start against Atlanta, the Mighty Freak is also vincible (20 innings pitched after that start and he’s given up 20 hits and 10 runs).  

The game settled for the next two-and-a-half innings until the Giants, seemingly in garbage time, tacked on three runs in the bottom of the eighth to up the score to 11-4. They were aided by Vlad Guerrero’s second error of the night, exposing—again—a major weakness the Rangers have in the field when they must play in San Francisco and put the aged and near-crippled Vlad (who looks as limber as yours truly after weeding for an hour) out to pasture. Not a pretty sight! 

Turns out that those three runs came in handy, as the Rangers rallied for three of their own in the top of the ninth, showing the kind of live bats we all expected. 

And so Game 1 ends with the Giants shockingly on top, after scoring a surprising 11 runs (as many as they mustered in the four-game Atlanta series) and knocking the socks off Cliff Lee.

Which leaves us with these questions: 

What in heaven’s name was Tim Lincecum thinking in the first inning, with first and third and one out, when he got Nelson Cruz to dribble one up the third base line and had Michael Young dead to rights in a rundown and instead walked him back to third base, leaving the bases loaded and only one out? 

Will the two teams play sharper baseball tonight, with the first game jitters gone, than the six-error, two hit batters, one wild pitch ug-fest that was last night’s contest?  

Will Vlad’s skill with bats overcome his bloody butchery in the outfield, or will his pitching staff want to impale him? 

Would a footrace between Vlad and Pat the Bat Burrell ever end? Can either bullpen get anybody out? 

If the Giants can actually score 7 runs off Cliff Lee, what will they do with the rest of the Rangers’ journeymen starters? 

Will I ever believe another pregame hype job about the best postseason pitching matchup ever? 

Can anybody top Tony Bennett’s singing of “God Bless America”? 

Tune in tonight. ’Cuz this looks like it could actually be a series.  

Words © 2010 AtHome Pilgrim.

All Rights Reserved.