Cain, a 26-year-old American right-hander, showed no sign of jitters in his first taste of baseball’s biggest stage, extending his streak of playoff innings without allowing an earned run to 21 1/3 by humbling the Rangers.
Edgar Renteria smacked a solo home run and added a two-run single as part of a seven-run eighth inning for San Francisco that ensured the Giants a 2-0 edge in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final.
The World Series now shifts to Texas, with the Rangers hosting game three in suburban Dallas on Saturday. Only once in the past 25 years has a team failed to win the crown after capturing the first two games.
“We’ve put ourselves in a good situation but we’re going into their ballpark where they will feel more comfortable,” Cain said. “We have to take the good approaches we’ve had the fist two games down to Texas with us.”
The Giants seek their first World Series title since 1954, four years before the club moved from New York. The Rangers seek the first World Series crown in their 50-season history after having not won a playoff series until this month.
“There’s still a lot of baseball left to be played. We certainly don’t feel like we’re defeated,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said.
“We’re certainly confident when we get back to Texas we can turn this thing around.
“The clubhouse is still upbeat. We’re still confident that we can get it done. We’ve just got to get on back to Texas and do that.”
Cain scattered four hits while walking two and striking out two, tossing 66 strikes in his 102 pitches in becoming only the fourth pitcher to allow no earned runs in his first three playoff starts, just the second since 1921.
“He commanded the fastball on both sides of the plate,” Giants catcher Buster Posey said of Cain. “He executed his pitches. He threw them where he wanted. He was aggressive and was able to get some quick outs early.”
The Rangers, who led Major League Baseball this season with a .276 batting average, were no match for Cain, who has kept opposing batters to a 1-for-15 showing with runners in scoring position in the playoffs.
“He has probably been the most consistent pitcher really from day one. He’s such a bulldog out there,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
“You look at what he’s done here in post-season, it’s impressive how he’s pitched.”
Texas leadoff hitter Elvis Andrus and clean-up hitter Nelson Cruz each saw a 12-game playoff hit streak wiped out as Cain improved to 12-0 when the Giants produced at least three runs in support.
“I really tried to make sure that I made every pitch count,” Cain said. “That has been my main focus.”
Renteria, a 35-year-old Colombian shortstop who won a World Series crown with Florida in 1997, smacked his homer in the fifth inning to open the scoring after Cain and Texas southpaw C.J. Wilson had dominated the early innings.
After hitting only 4-for-22 in the playoffs previously, Renteria belted a one-out homer over the left-field fence to put the Giants ahead.
In the sixth, Michael Young and Josh Hamilton hit back-to-back singles for Texas and advanced on a wild pitch from Cain, but Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler each hit pop fly outs to end the threat with Texas still scoreless.
Kinsler also barely missed a homer in the fifth when he smashed a ball off the top of the centerfield wall that bounced back onto the field.
“I don’t think we’ve caught any breaks yet,” Washington said.
Wilson allowed only three Giants hits but exited with a blister on his left little finger after walking Cody Ross to start the seventh. Ross advanced on an Aubrey Huff ground out and scored on Juan Uribe’s single for a 2-0 Giants lead.
San Francisco turned the game into a rout in the eighth by humiliating the Texas bullpen, tagging Rangers relief pitchers for seven runs off four hits and four walks, all coming when Texas needed only one out to end the inning.
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