Home Teams Keep Winning

         Colby Lewis puts on a show for fans in Arlington as the Rangers edge the Giants 4-2  

         Colby Lewis owes a lot to the Rangers’ organization for securing faith in him when no other MLB team would.  After getting drafted in ’99 by Texas, Lewis played a little here and there for the Rangers, Tigers, and Athletics between 2002 and 2007 before eventually leaving the States to play in Japan for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.  The Rangers brought him back for this season, one in which he certainly had a “career-year”.  Rangers’ GM Jon Daniels received a big thank you from Colby Lewis for signing him this Winter when Lewis led the Rangers to a Game 3 victory Saturday night (7.2 innings pitched, 5 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks and 6 strikeouts). 

            Every run scored in this game came off home runs (Mitch Moreland, Josh Hamilton, Cody Ross, and Andres Torres).  Moreland’s 2^nd-inning three-run shot was the first score of the day and ultimately the real difference in the Rangers 4-2 win.

            This is the first time since 2001 that the home team won each of the first three games of the World Series.  That World Series between the Diamondbacks and Yankees is also one of only three times that the home team has won every game in the series (1991 and 1987 were the other two years).  Side note: while sifting through the Baseball-Reference World Series recaps to figure out that stat, I realized that some of the World Series winners in the early part of the 20^th century had to win five games to capture the title.  Apparently between 1919 and 1921, Major League Baseball experimented with a best of nine World Series format! 

            Baseball needs a Game 7 this year, and the home team winning each game would make for an even better treat.  Just think of the emotional tug and pull sparked by that course of events: one team jumps up 2-0, only to have their momentum crushed by losing three straight.  Then they find their groove again and win the final two games.  Both teams feel like they’re on the top and bottom of the world at some point during the series.

            Madison Bumgarner faces off against Tommy Hunter tonight, and if the San Francisco lefty gets the win, Bumgarner will become the 4^th youngest pitcher to ever win a World Series game (he is 21 years and 92 days old today).  Happy Halloween everybody!