Could that have possibly gone any worse? The Rangers wasted early opportunities, had defensive miscues, Cliff Lee looked human, and Darren O'Day looked even worse. Getting blown out is just an embarrassing start to your World Series history.
Cliche as it is, though, there's nothing worth panicking over. I said in the preview the Rangers were likely to win the series even if they lost game one, and I still believe that. And as good as Cliff Lee is, he's not unbeatable. It was hard to watch him struggle that much, but it happens. Tim Lincecum is great and winning on the road is hard, this was not even in the top three most winnable games this series.
Four runs on the road in a game started by Lincecum is nothing to sneeze at. They even got to Brian Wilson a little bit, which is not only a good sign but also made him throw some pitches in a game he probably should never have shown up in. The reason the Rangers lost was because Lee struggled, and he won't be on the mound in the next three games (and hopefully he'll be himself the next time he is). Winning the World Series is now absolutely harder than it was this morning, I'm not saying anyone should be happy. That sucked. A lot. But I firmly believe the Rangers are more likely -- with three games still at home -- to win more games than they lose the rest of the way, and that's all it takes.
Regroup and come back tomorrow night. C.J. Wilson has a nice history of winning after losses. I think everyone was going to be very happy with a split on the road, and it doesn't matter what order those wins come in. Pull it out in game two and you're in control of the series.
Oh, and, in case you forgot, the Rangers have been down 1-0 in a series very recently. While that game favored the Rangers less, so did the six following games. They ended up not even needing seven to take the ALCS. It sucks and it was awful and I wish it hadn't happened and I'm going to be in a bad mood for the next 20 hours, but it's just one game out of seven.
It will be a lot easier, by the way, if Vladimir Guerrero is not playing right field, though. He looked horrific all night, and though it didn't end up mattering for the most part, he showed both an extreme lack of Range and no glove ability at all. The Giants got anywhere from 3-5 more bases than they should have because of one guy whose only reason for being in the field was he's a legend in his first World Series game. That's great and all, and he wasn't the reason the Rangers lost, but there's no need to keep it up. David Murphy has hit better in the second half of the season, he is better against righties (which tomorrow night's starter is), and he isn't a tragically bad outfielder. Guerrero just cannot handle it anymore, no matter how much pride Ron Washington says he has.
I was not too upset about Guerrero starting tonight, but after what I saw I hope more than ever he isn't starting game two.
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