Series heading north tied at 1

Home runs, home runs and more home runs. After two games and 11 home runs, the World Series stands tied at one game apiece. The San Francisco Giants scored all four runs in Game 1 off of home runs to beat the Anaheim Angels 4-3. Home runs are apparently going to be the story of the series as both Anaheim's Troy Glaus' and Tim Salmon were the heroes in game 2, blasting three home runs between them to give the Angels an 11-10 victory.

The Giants also had four Game 2 home runs, including a somewhat meaningless monster-shot from Barry Bonds in the top of the ninth. Even with this abundance of offensive firepower, each team has relied on its relief pitching to win.

Both teams have great bullpens, and after the Giants' relief corps closed out Saturday night's Game 1 win, Anaheim's bullpen (read: Francisco Rodriguez) proved to be stronger on Sunday night, as it enabled the Angels to even the series at two. The 20-year-old phenom, Rodriguez, picked up his first win of the World Series and fifth win of the postseason by pitching three shut out innings. With the victory, Rodriquez has been the winnings pitcher in five of the Angels eight postseason victories.

With the closeness of the games, relief pitching will inevitably play a crucial role in determining the outcome of the Series.

Game 1 of the Series pitted staff "aces" Jason Schmidt of the Giants against Jarrod Washburn of the Angels in a match-up of two good, but not great, pitchers. Each can be dominating at times, but they are both prone to bouts of wildness. Outside of winning or losing, the big question going into Game 1 was whether the Angels' pitchers would challenge Barry Bonds or pitch around him.

Washburn answered that in Bonds' first at bat, when he grooved a pitch right into Barry's wheelhouse and then watched it sail over the outfield fence. Following the homer, the undaunted Washburn seemed to shrug and grin a little.

Two batters after Bonds, the previously struggling Reggie Sanders also homered off of Washburn in the second giving the Giants a 2-0 lead. But the hero of the Game was first baseman J.T. Snow, who smacked a two-run homerun off of Washburn in the sixth inning to give the Giants a four run lead at the time. He also made a nice catch in foul territory after slipping on the dirt by the home dugout on a popup by Tim Salmon. It was a key out with Angels at first and third.

In the end, both starting pitchers pitched mediocre games in which they both lasted 5 and 2/3 innings. The bullpens preserved the 4-3 San Francisco lead that they were given, each pitching 3 and 1/3 scoreless innings in Game 1. And while, Rob Nen and the rest of the Giants' relievers were not necessarily better than Angels' relief staff in Game 1, they were as good as they had to be to preserve the lead that Schmidt left for them. Troy Glaus hit two home runs in defeat for the Angels.

It seemed as if each team realized after Game 1 that it was imperative to score runs in the first few innings of the World Series, because the relievers on both teams will not give an inch. In Game 2, Anaheim was the first to break through with some runs in the bottom of the first inning off of Giants' starter Russ Ortiz.

Its five run, six hit barrage got the Rally Monkey working early as the Angels looked to be on their way to a rout before the Giants even got warmed up. Luckily for the Giants, however, Angels' starter Kevin Appier was just as bad, as he gave three runs right back to the Giants in the top of the second on Reggie Sanders' second home run of the World Series. Jeff Kent and David Bell also homered for the Giants in the next few innings as the two teams traded leads.

Despite all of the San Francisco big guns stepping up, the Angels' Tim Salmon dominated this game. With Salmon's second inning home run, the Angels set the Major League record for team home runs in a single postseason with 20; surprising consider that they didn't use the long ball much during the regular season. For the game, With Salmon, who broke a 9-9 tie with his second two-run homer of the night, went 4 for 4, with 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, and three runs scored.

Outside of Salmon and the poor starting pitching, the story of Game 2 was the bullpens. Anaheim's relievers (read: Francisco Rodriquez) proved to be ultimately superior and Troy Percival came on to close the game in the top of the ninth.

After Percival recorded the first two outs, Barry Bonds approached the plate in a scene that seemed fit for Hollywood. Because there was no one on base and the Angels had a two run lead, Percival was free to pitch to Bonds. Bonds punished him on the first pitch, launching a monster shot to right center, after which Salmon was seen mouthing, "I've never seen a ball hit farther than that."

Unfortunately, there was no one on base, and Barry's efforts were futile as Percival retired the Giants' next better. The series now heads north to San Francisco.