"The Giants will match aces with the Texas Rangers, sending Tim Lincecum against stern left-hander Cliff Lee in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday at AT&T Park.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy will start right-hander Matt Cain in Game 2 on Thursday and use left-hander Jonathan Sanchez when the series shifts to Texas on Saturday for Game 3, flip-flopping the order of his Nos. 2-3 starters from the National League championship series.

It only gets tougher for the Giants' stout staff, which shut down the potent Philadelphia Phillies to win the pennant. But the Phillies entered the NLCS with cold bats, and many framed their loss as more a failure on their part than an achievement for the Giants' pitchers.

The Rangers are another great offensive team -- and they have been a sizzling wrecking crew while toppling the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees.

Giants general manager Brian Sabean said he didn't think his pitchers got enough credit for shutting down the Phillies, and he is confident in how they will match up against Josh Hamilton, Elvis Andrus and the rest of the red-hot Rangers.

"If you ask me straight up, we like our pitching staff better than the Yankee pitching staff," Sabean said. "Simply put, we don't have the Yankee pitching staff that gave up all the runs they gave up against Texas.

"I have no way to prove this on paper, but if you put the Phillies beside the Rangers, we just beat a pretty good team. So I don't think our pitching staff is going to be intimidated by Texas.

"Having said that, we know the Phillies better than we know Texas. So it's going to be intriguing as these games are played -- the pitch-to-pitch and inning-to-inning adjustments. Really, we're going to be feeling each other out as we go along."

Bochy said he moved Cain into the No. 2 spot because he didn't want the right-hander to be too rested; Cain hasn't started since Game 3 of the NLCS on Oct. 19. Bochy also said he retained faith in Sanchez despite the left-hander's erratic outing in Saturday's Game 6 clinching victory over the Phillies."