Giants throttle Rangers in Game 2

SAN FRANCISCO - These are the things so hard to explain in baseball, and just a few of the many reasons the San Francisco Giants are two wins away from a world championship.

In the fifth inning of San Francisco's 9-0 victory in Game 2 of the World Series at AT&T Park, Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler crushed a ball to center, nearly 399 feet from home plate. It was a home run. Had to be.

But the ball bounced off the top of the wall and its backspin carried it into the glove of Andres Torres. Kinsler had a double and incredulously stood on second base. He was stranded there by Matt Cain, the Giants' No. 2 starter, who has yet to allow an earned run this postseason. Quite a break, right?

"It really was," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

In the bottom half of the inning, Edgar Renteria murdered a 91-m.p.h. C.J. Wilson fastball. Renteria, the 33-year-old shortstop who has been around the game long enough to require a double take when informed of his age, had hit one home run in 93 days. On Thursday, he hit another.

And that was the difference in a tight game that unraveled in the eighth when San Francisco sent 11 men to the plate and scored seven times.

"It's Halloween," Renteria said. "Something can happen."

OK, it's not Halloween until Sunday, but maybe that is the only way to rationalize the sudden outburst of the San Francisco offense. The Giants, who scored 20 runs in six games against the Phillies in the National League Championship Series, have scored 20 runs in two World Series games.

San Francisco has a two-games-to-none lead, and in the previous 51 times that has happened in the World Series, the team with the lead has won 40 times.

"It's nice to do it a little bit easier," Bochy said. "As you know, we don't do things easy. Really, it was a tight game going into the eighth inning there. The big inning certainly helped. But every pitch, every play was so important there for the most part."

After 18 runs, 25 hits, six errors, and 12 pitchers in Game 1 on Wednesday, the two teams played baseball a tad bit more deserving of the Fall Classic. Game 2 turned ugly only in the eighth, when three Rangers relievers walked four straight batters in an absolute meltdown.

There are flukes that have driven this Giants team, certainly. But with every victory it becomes harder and harder to challenge San Francisco's talent in this postseason.

Renteria's hit was improbable. His last home run was Sept. 4. That was his only home run since July 27. Of course, Renteria is no stranger to key World Series hits, and within a minute of hitting the solo homer Thursday night, his Series-winning single in 1997 while with the Florida Marlins was being replayed on TV sets across the country.

Giants infielder Mark DeRosa remembered when Renteria stood in front of the entire team during a team meeting in September when the offense had scuffled.

"He got emotional with us," DeRosa said. "He said his career was closing down and he wanted another shot. He felt like we had an opportunity to do something special and wanted to tell us that.

"His words resonated loudest with the guys. He's a man of very few words."

Renteria played just 72 games in 2010 while battling myriad injuries. Bochy, as he's done much of this season, played the right hunch and stuck with the aging shortstop.

"I'll say this," Bochy said, "I think the rest probably has benefited him. He's playing like he did 10 years ago."

Said DeRosa: "He's playing shortstop like he's 20 again."

The rest of the Giants' offense is revitalized as well. As Guillermo Mota, the least-used pitcher on the staff, pitched the ninth inning to seal the rout, the sellout crowd at AT&T Park chanted "Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!"

San Francisco needs two more wins to make that happen, but there is no shortage of confidence now.