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Giants-Rangers Preview

Oct 31, 2010 - 4:55 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

San Francisco (92-70) at Texas (90-72), 8:20 p.m. EDT

The Texas Rangers feel they have momentum. The San Francisco Giants still have the lead.

The home team has won every game of the World Series heading into Sunday night when the Rangers try to capture Game 4 and tie the series.

Texas struggled on the road in the first two games, allowing 20 runs and 22 hits. Colby Lewis helped slow down the Giants by allowing two runs over 7 2-3 innings in a 4-2 victory Saturday in the first World Series game in Arlington.

"I feel great," manager Ron Washington said. "We wanted to get back home. We felt comfortable here. We knew we could finally put a good game together, and we did."

San Francisco managed five hits, including solo homers from Andres Torres and Cody Ross. No. 5 hitter Pat Burrell struck out in all four at-bats to drop to 0 for 9 with eight strikeouts and two walks in the series.

"You know, it's nice to be in our position right now, but we said we have a lot of work ahead of us," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We're playing a very good club, and we didn't think this would be easy."

Josh Hamilton and Michael Young each went 1 for 8 with no RBIs in the first two games, but both looked more comfortable at home. Hamilton's fifth-inning solo homer made it 4-0 and Young had two hits.

"You know, the momentum, obviously we're still down one game, but it's shifted," Hamilton said. "I mean, we're at home, we've got the fans behind us. We're right where we want to be."

Rookie Mitch Moreland hit a three-run homer in the second inning to put Texas ahead for good.

Bochy is trying to decide who will serve as his designated hitter Sunday against right-hander Tommy Hunter. The manager used switch-hitting Pablo Sandoval in Game 3 against the right-hander Lewis, and Sandoval went 0 for 3.

Giants designated hitters went 2 for 22 as the club lost five of six interleague road games in 2010. Bochy would not commit to whether he would stick with Sandoval after Saturday's loss.

"We have a couple other options I mentioned, you know, (Aubrey) Huff DHing, (Travis) Ishikawa going out there or even Pat Burrell," Bochy said.

Hunter turned in an outstanding season, going 13-4 with a 3.73 ERA in 23 games, including 22 starts. He went 2-0 with a 2.51 ERA in three interleague outings, and the sight of an NL team may be what he needs to get back on track.

The third-year starter has had a rough postseason, going 0-1 with a 6.14 ERA in two outings. He failed to last past the fourth inning in both of them, giving up three runs over 3 1-3 innings in a 10-3 win over the Yankees in Game 4 of the AL championship series Oct. 19.

Hunter hasn't issued a walk in the postseason. Although hitters have lately been taking advantage of that approach, he still expects to aggressively attack the strike zone in his World Series debut.

"I'm not going to change the game plan just because this is the World Series," he said. "I'm going to continue to go after them and pound the zone."

The only San Francisco hitters with experience against him are Burrell (1 for 3) and Ross (0 for 1).

The Giants will start a second straight left-hander with Madison Bumgarner following Jonathan Sanchez to the mound. Sanchez gave up four runs over 4 2-3 innings Saturday.

Bumgarner went 1-0 with a 4.22 ERA in his first two playoff starts, and also threw two scoreless innings of relief in Philadelphia in the Game 6 clincher in the NL championship series. Both of his starts came in Game 4s \2013 the division series clincher against Atlanta and a Giants win for a 3-1 lead in the NLCS.

The 21-year-old rookie, whose major league debut in Sept. 2009 was caught by current Rangers catcher Bengie Molina, began the season in Triple-A Fresno before being called up June 26.

"Right now I'm just going to try to treat it like any other game, and then after it's over with look back and be like, wow, you just pitched in the World Series," Bumgarner said. "For now I'm just going to try to treat it like any other game."

Bochy did not say whether he would bench the slumping Burrell, who has 19 strikeouts in 38 postseason at-bats after another hitless performance.

"I'd be disappointed of course; you want to play," said Burrell, who went 1 for 14 in the 2008 World Series with Tampa Bay. "Could I blame him? Probably not."