San Francisco Giants players celebrate after defeating the Texas Rangers in Major League Baseball's World Series in Arlington

San Francisco Giants vs. Texas Rangers

Game 5 recap: The Giants are the best in the world.

The San Francisco Giants beat the Texas Rangers 3-1 in Texas Monday night to win the World Series for the first time since moving to the Bay Area in 1958. The last time the Giants won the title, it was 1954 and they belonged to New York.

Game 5 was the pitching battle we all expected from Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee, and once again the two-time Cy Young Award winner was victorious. Lincecum went eight innings, giving up just three hits and one run to win his second game of the World Series (his fourth of the postseason).

Neither team scored until the seventh inning when Lee gave up a three-run home run to Edgar Renteria, who produced the second World Series-winning hit of his career (the first came in 1997 as a member of the Florida Marlins).

Nelson Cruz hit a solo homer off of Lincecum in the bottom of the seventh, ending a drought of 18 1/3 scoreless innings for the Rangers, but it wasn't enough to catch the Giants.

Texas' offense continued to struggle against Lincecum, who had 10 strikeouts in the win, and failed to stage a comeback at home. The best hitting team in baseball was held to a .190 average in the five game series.

Cliff Lee had six strikeouts, but he allowed six hits (including the home run to Renteria) in seven innings, earning his second consecutive loss in the playoffs. Before facing the Giants, Lee had been undefeated in postseason play.

Key moment: Cody Ross’ leadoff single to center field in the seventh inning started the Giants’ rally. After his hit, Juan Uribe singled to center to put two men on base for the first time all game. After a perfect sac bunt by Aubrey Huff, and a Pat Burrell strikeout (again), Renteria hit a rocket into the left field stands to give the Giants the lead and the first score of the game.

Game changer: The MVP of the World Series’ home run off of Cliff Lee, of course. Edgar Renteria, who also homered in the fifth inning of Game 2, delivered the game-winning hit. Renteria hit .412 with six hits and two homers in the World Series to nudge out Lincecum for most valuable player honors.

Play of the game: Brian Wilson replaced Lincecum in the ninth inning and retired the heart of the Rangers' lineup to close out his sixth postseason save. The decision to bring in Wilson was controversial, seeing as Lincecum had only made 101 pitches and given up one run through eight innings, but in the end Bruce Bochy's decision turned out to be a solid one and the Giants got the win.

Unsung hero: Tim Lincecum’s performance was overshadowed by Renteria’s game-winning home run (and that whole winning the World Series thing), but he went 5-1 in the playoffs with an ERA of 3.30 and struck out 43 batters.

Quotes of the game: “He told me he was gonna do it.” - Andres Torres, talking about Renteria’s home run

“We don’t have any superstars. We’re just a bunch of guys who wanted to win.” – Cody Ross

“I didn’t know they could pitch that well, but it was just as good as advertised. In a seven game series, they got to four before we did and they deserve to be the world champions.” – Rangers manager Ron Washington

To reach writer Kamille Turnquest, click here.

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