Lack of Offense, Giants Pitching Spell End To Rangers’ Season: Giants 3 Rangers 1

With one pitch to Edgar Renteria with two runners on in the seventh inning, the Rangers only had nine outs to save their season.

The three-run homer surrendered by Rangers’ ace Cliff Lee, turned a scoreless tie in Game 5 of the World Series into a 3-0 lead for the Giants. Lee only gave up six hits but two of them were singles leading up to the home run. The struggling Rangers offense could not recover, despite a one-out long ball by Nelson Cruz in the bottom of the inning, as Tim Lincecum pitched an eight-inning three-hit gem.

Singles by Michael Young in the fourth and Mitch Moreland in the sixth accounted for the only other Rangers’ hits. Moreland, whose postseason batting average and World Series average of .462, may have cemented his long-term role at first base. Giants’ pitching found an answer to hold down the cornerstones of the Rangers lineup, Josh Hamilton and Vladimir Guerrero.