Here's the thing about the Angels. They had to get to the World Series to find the perfect ballpark for their talents.

	Kirk Rueter is 1-1 with a 7.07 ERA in the postseason.

"They play just like a National League team," Giants shortstop Rich Aurilia said, "but they're not like any team we saw all year. That's weird, isn't it?"

Ahh, but here's the thing about the Giants. They haven't gotten a really good World Series effort from a starting pitcher in 40 years.

Now Jason Schmidt did OK in Game 1, the one the Giants won. But he lasted 5 2/3 innings and gave up three runs. That falls just short of the minimum standard for a quality start, as first defined by John Lowe of the Detroit (Our Pitchers Don't Engage In That Sort Of Thing) Free Press.

But the two starts since, from Russ Ortiz and Livan Hernandez, fall just short of the minimum standard for "Just Shoot Me, OK?"

And the four before those, in the famous Earthquake Series of 1989, were even less inspiring. Indeed, with Schmidt, the Giants starters are 1-5 with a 12.00 ERA in their last seven games. That's over 24 entire innings, in which 45 hits and 34 runs have been offered as tribute to the other team.

Even Bill James sitting in his underwear with a snootful of Old Overcoat can't make that number do anything but lay there and moan.

And if you take the Schmidt outing out, it's 0-5 with a 14.23 ERA. It's so Colorado Rockies, it makes gravy drip from your eyes.

Now two games do not make a pattern, so there is nothing that says Kirk Rueter, the Giants' Game 4 starter, cannot dope-slap the diabolical Angel hitters into submission. But seven games do make a pattern, and Rueter's success would not only reorder this series but would defy history.

The Giants of '89 reached their first Series in 27 years by dominating the National League and whipping the Kick Me Chicago Cubs. But then they faced the Oakland A's, the ones who hit. Using Scott Garrelts twice and Rick Reuschel and Don Robinson once each, they didn't get a starter out of the fourth and the A's won in four games.

These Giants do not possess a lights-out pitcher either, no Schilling/Johnson/Martinez/Zito type to change a series all on his lonesome.

But they have four starters who are better than this. Just ask Hernandez.

"I can do better than this," he said. "Ninety-two pitches in three innings ... that's too much. It's not Livan."

In fact, it is kind of Livan, given that he had more 120-plus-pitch starts than anyone else in baseball. He even had one 126-pitch start in which he didn't reach the seventh.

But he has never had a 276-pitch complete game, so he 's probably right when he says, "It's not Livan."

And it better not be Rueter, either. The Giants like to talk about how they thrive when their backs are against the wall, but not when the wall has spikes papered over with Art-Howe-To-The-Mets rumors.

These Angels proved long ago ... well, a couple of weeks ago, anyway ... that they not only don't die easily, but in fact are quite good at the gentle art of putting the boot in the groin. In 102 innings, they have scored multiple runs 18 times, and batted around six times.

In baseball lingo, that's backing over the dead squirrel until you can't tell it's a squirrel any more.

So Kirk Rueter faces down both the Angels and the Baseball Encyclopedia Wednesday. The Anaheim starting lineup weighs 1,720 pounds. The Encyclopedia weighs about 1,600, although that includes the section on the Federal League.

No matter how you choose it, it's some weight Rueter is being asked to tote for the good of the company. This could be his finest hour, ever.

Either this, or the baseballs are too damned hard.

Ray Ratto is a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle and a regular contributor to ESPN.com