The back stories, the drama, the talent level, it’s a dream come true for baseball writers around the globe.
The red hot bats of the Texas Rangers and its high scoring offense against a scrappy San Francisco Team led by dominant pitching and scrappy hitting; it’s a tale of two contrasting but ultimately successful styles and it sure makes for a much more interesting World Series than New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies rerun.
The Texas Rangers (90-72) led the AL West nearly since day and dominated their division all year, clinging to the title in what seemed like early May. The San Francisco Giants (92-70) had a bit of a tougher path getting to the post season after they turned it on in late August and the San Diego Padres imploded the Giants clinched the NL West in the final days of the season.
But they both fought their way through the best teams in baseball clinching their respective LDS titles and will now face one another for the World Series title.
Now they’re matched up in the baseball lines it’s anybody’s guess as to whom will win the title but you’ve got to like the Rangers chances.
The old baseball odds adage that ‘good pitching beats good hitting’ rings especially true during the postseason. But that offers little insight as both team’s pitching staffs have been exceptional during the 2010 playoffs.
Game 1 will see two exceptional Cy Young winning pitchers, the Rangers Cliff Lee (3-0, .75 ERA, 24.0 innings pitched, 1 BB) and Tim Lincecum (3-1, 1.93 ERA, 23.1 innings pitched, 5 BB). This should be one the best Game 1’s we’ve seen in a while in the World Series baseball odds.
Both teams are deep through their starting rotations and both teams have pitched well.
The main difference between the Rangers and the Giants is that while Texas has been exceptional at the plate the Giants lineup has all the pop of a water pistol.
While both teams should pitch very well the Giants pitchers will be facing much better hitters and have a much smaller margin for error.
And that may be the difference in this series and a very good reason to favor the Rangers.