A Giant celebration: Texas hopes to crash WS party

[October 30, 2010]  ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- A couple of Giants coaches rolled balls down the chalk lines, checking if the dirt tilted fair or foul. A few San Francisco hitters squinted into the sun glinting off glass windows in left field, seeing how it might affect them in the batter's box.

It's been quite a while since the Giants last visited Rangers Ballpark -- Tim Lincecum was a teenager then, back in 2001.

The Giants would like to make this a rather short stay.

Up 2-0 on the Texas Rangers in the World Series, the Giants are halfway to clinching their first championship since moving to San Francisco more than a half-century ago.

"There's baseball left," manager Bruce Bochy said before Friday's workout. "Two wins doesn't get you anything."

Colby Lewis is set to start Game 3 Saturday night against Giants lefty Jonathan Sanchez. It will be the first Series game in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"I think you're going to see a different Ranger team tomorrow, for sure," Giants reliever Javier Lopez said.

"It's their home opener. They've been waiting for this one just as long as San Fran has. They're going to be excited, they're going to be fired up. The crowd's definitely going to be amped up here. It's going to get loud in here. We've just got to try to match that intensity."

Signs around Rangers Ballpark proclaimed, "It's Time!" Outfielder Jeff Francoeur and his teammates hope so.

"I think it's important for us to come out, play well early, get guys on and put pressure on them. Make them feel uncomfortable," Francoeur said. "They did a good job of making us seem uncomfortable in their park. Hopefully we can turn around and do the same to them."

So far, the Texas hitters are slumping, the bullpen is a wreck and the manager is being criticized. A team that did so well in the AL playoffs got battered 11-7 in the opener, then embarrassed 9-0.

"What you do is you just try to analyze what went wrong and just try to correct it," Texas manager Ron Washington said.

"Now that we're home, we feel comfortable back in this place. Not taking anything away from the Giants, they beat us soundly," he said. "We've just got to come back here, get focused and win a game. We win a game, everything will be fine."

Lewis, who closed out the Yankees in the AL championship series, will try to stop San Francisco's scoring spree. Texas has been tagged for 20 runs, the most allowed in a franchise's first two World Series games, STATS LLC said. Colorado set the previous record of 15 runs in 2007.

"If you try to get too amped or too overly confident, I think you get yourself in trouble," Lewis said.

Vladimir Guerrero will rejoin the Texas lineup as the designated hitter. He drove in the first run of this World Series with a single off Lincecum's leg, but also made two errors in right field and sat out Game 2.

Bochy said Pablo Sandoval will be his DH.

"We get to get all of our weapons in that lineup," Washington said. "It's just comfortable to be back home in front of our fans. We can draw energy from them, and that's what we need."

They certainly need some sort of boost.

"We're not playing the same. I don't know what it is," Texas slugger Nelson Cruz said after Game 2. "I wish I could tell you. The way we're playing, it's different. It's not us."

Neither is San Francisco, apparently. The week began with many fans wondering whether the Giants could hit enough to win -- so far, they've become the first NL team to score at least nine runs in back-to-back World Series games.

Texas was one of baseball's best home teams this year, the Giants were among the top road clubs. The Rangers also had been doing well on the road -- 5-1 in the AL playoffs -- before San Francisco stopped them.

Sanchez quickly unraveled in his last start, in the clinching Game 6 of the NLCS against Philadelphia. He hit Chase Utley with a pitch in the third inning and took exception to the way the Phillies star flipped the ball back to him.

Sanchez shouted at Utley and the benches and bullpens emptied. No punches were thrown, no one was ejected. Sanchez was held back by teammates and Bochy pulled him.

Asked about that dustup, Sanchez deferred.

"We're in the World Series against Texas," he said. "Phillies are at home."

[Associated Press; By BEN WALKER]

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