Texas' World Series Failures Run Gamut

ARLINGTON, Texas -- There is no end to the ways that the Texas Rangers hurt themselves in the 2010 World Series.

After Game 1, they didn't score a run without the benefit of a homer.

For the last 21 innings, they got just two men as far as second base.

In Game 2, down just 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning, the bullpen that had carried them through the first two rounds of the postseason couldn't get anybody out. Reliever Derek Holland missed the strike zone with his first 11 pitches, and it took nine pitches for the Rangers to get somebody warming in the bullpen.

More than that, manager Ron Washington used everybody except his most reliable arm, closer Neftali Feliz, in that inning, saying he didn't want to use him down two runs. So on Monday night, down two runs, Washington used Feliz, a last gasp in a 3-1 loss that blew the Rangers out of their first-ever World Series appearance.

The reason the Rangers were down was a decision made by Texas ace Cliff Lee in a tie game in the top of the seventh. The left-hander had runners on second and third with two out and could have walked Edgar Renteria, whose homer in the fifth inning of Game 2 in San Francisco also snapped a scoreless tie.

But the Rangers couldn't get themselves together, and that failure meant their last chance to extend the World Series vanished over the left field wall.

Lee missed with his first two pitches. He could have walked Renteria and taken his chances with Aaron Rowand, who had just one at-bat in the first four games of the series.

That runs counter to everything Lee believes, however, and he wasn't going to walk him, even though his catcher, Bengie Molina, wanted Renteria out of the way.

"We wound up having the second-best team this year, and we got to the World Series. We've got to be proud of this, but also use it as motivation for next year."
-- Cliff Lee The 2-0 pitch was a cutter, and a rather lame one at that, a pitch that didn't have any of the crispness of almost all of Lee's other pitches. It came in lukewarm and Renteria put a charge into it en route to locking up MVP honors for the series.

"I don't want to walk anyone," Lee said. "Looking back, you could say I should have, but the competitor in me doesn't feel that way. I went after him. That's the way I've played all year.

"That's the way I have to pitch to be successful."

That choice had Molina shaking his head. And yet he knows Lee's makeup well enough to understand, if not approve. It can work over the long term. In a couple of starts in a seven-game series, it can backfire.

"I wanted to walk Renteria," said Molina, who spent the first half of 2010 with the Giants and respects the veteran shortstop. "I didn't want to pitch to him at all. But Cliff's makeup isn't like that. And it was just the location on one pitch. If he puts the ball where he wants to, then maybe Renteria pops it up."

WORLD SERIES COVERAGE

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Game 5: Giants 3, Rangers 1 | Box
Fletcher: Giants' Unexpected Title
Krasovic: Renteria Still Dangerous
Moore: Title for All Giants
Hickey: Rangers' Many Failures
Price: Texas Set Up for Future
Renteria MVP | Photo Gallery | Parade
FHTV: Phillips' Wrapup | Analysis If Renteria had been wearing a Rangers uniform, that probably would have been the case. Texas has a huge big-play offense, but against the Giants pitchers, the nation saw none of that. The Rangers put almost no one on base, hitting just .190 with an on-base percentage of .258.

After scoring seven runs in Game 1 -- only two of which came when the game was competitive -- the Rangers scored just five more runs -- a three-run homer by Mitch Moreland and a solo shot by Josh Hamilton in Game 3's 4-2 win, and Nelson Cruz's seventh-inning solo blast Monday.

When Texas put men on base, which wasn't often, the Rangers found themselves at a loss trying to capitalize.

"This sucks," third baseman Michael Young said. "The goal was not just to get to the World Series, but to win it. We didn't win it. But it's been a great year, and we're going to have learned from this."

Second baseman Ian Kinsler, who joined starters Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton, Vladimir Guerrero, Cruz and Molina in hitting .200 or less for the series, walked down the same path mentally.

"We went through a lot this year; it's a real tight-knit group," Kinsler said. "It's hard to accept that we didn't get it done, but we accomplished a lot this year."

"A group of guys as good as this becomes family," outfielder David Murphy said. "And we're here for each other now. But a lot of us will be back next year, so we're thinking we'll have a chance to do this again."

History is seldom so accommodating. Since 2005 there have been a dozen spots in the World Series. Eleven different teams have filled them. Only the Phillies, who were champions in 2008 and runners-up in 2009, made it more than once.

So, using history as a guide, seeing either of these teams in the World Series in 12 months would appear to be a long shot at best.

The Giants won, but the Rangers didn't. So their perspectives on what they have to do next year are radically different.

"I'm happy with the way we played in the World Series," Cruz said -- with a caveat. "If we learned the things that will make us better and get us back here next year. That's what's important, because we all still want to win it."

One of the blood sports of the offseason will be the speculation on where Lee winds up. He'll be the most coveted pitcher in free agency, which starts in five days, even if most of those coveting him won't have the financial wherewithal to make a competitive bid.

Texas vows to be right there with the Yankees and, perhaps, the Red Sox and others in the Lee sweepstakes.

And on this night at least, Lee sounded like somebody coming back.

"We wound up having the second-best team this year, and we got to the World Series," he said. "We've got to be proud of this, but also use it as motivation for next year."

But next year is promised to no one, and the Rangers didn't do nearly enough right this year to be competitive in their final series.

So next year? Well, that's a story for next year.

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With this season complete, FanHouse looks ahead at the Rangers' and Giants' future: