Game Wrap 2012 World Series Game 1 Giants 8 Tigers 3

Pablo Sandoval has been building to a game like this for awhile now.  It all came together for the Panda in this one as he tied a World Series record shared with none other than Babe Ruth(twice), Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols with 3 home runs off Justin Verlander who many observers believe is the best pitcher in baseball.  In addition, the Giants offense mounted a sustained, withering, grinding attack on the maestro pitcher to add on even more runs.  Barry Zito had another excellent start and Tim Lincecum shut it down for 2.1 innings when it looked like the Tigers might try to get back in the game.  The Giants came away with a huge win in Game 1 of the series that not many people expected.  Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 2 for 4, 2 2B.  BA= .500.  Forget about the 2 doubles and the ball that caromed off 3B setting up Verlander's meltdown.  Pagan was grinding out AB's, refusing to go down without a fight already.  Every AB was 7,8, 9 pitches.  You could see that took a toll on Verlander.

Marco Scutaro- 2 for 4.  BA= .500.  Scooter just keeps on scootin' Another 2 hit game that was smack dab in the middle of 2 bit Giants rallies.

Pablo Sandoval- 4 for 4, 3 HR.  BA= 1.000.   As I said above, this did not come out of the blue.  Pablo has been building toward something like this for awhile as his in-season workout regimen has taken off pounds and put on muscle and his wrists have healed and gotten stronger and he has worked to get his timing back.  You could see the power returning in the NLCS and it was a matter of time before something like this happened.  Not necessarily 3 dingers in 1 game, mind you, but you could see that Pablo was getting ready to have a huge WS.  The pitches he hit were not hanging curves either.  #1: 0-2 FB out of the zone.  #2:  FB down and away that he took to LF.  #3 Slider down and in that he dropped the bat head on.

Buster Posey- 2 for 4.  BA= .500.  They were just a couple of singles, but it's a start.  Look for Buster to heat up as the series goes along.

Gregor Blanco- 0 for 4. BA= .000.  Defense was again a difference for the Giants as Blanco made 2 nice grabs at the tips of the grassblades to save some runs(Fangraphs snarks about his routes to the ball notwithstanding), while Austin Jackson overran a ball in CF and Delmon Young made a dying quail throw to give the Giants at least 2 extra runs.

Barry Zito- 1 for 2.  BA= .500.  Zito was already doing something he has become quite good at before he slapped that RBI single past Cabrera at 3B.  He was running up Verlander's pitch count.  Zito may still not get many hits, but he's learned to be selective at the plate and also learned how to foul off pitches and thus is able to contribute by forcing the opposing pitcher to throw more pitches than he wants to.

Barry Zito- 5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 1.59.  Zito was not quite as sharp as he was in the NLCS but he kept the Tigers off balance and kept the Giants in the game early until they could build a big lead.  How many consecutive Zito starts have the Giants won now?

Tim Lincecum- 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 0.00.  Timmy is quite clearly much more comfortable coming out of the pen right now.  Bochy could be criticized for burning Timmy in a near-blowout game, but The Committee needed a rest and Bochy understood the importance of making sure the Giants came away from this one with the W.  We saw how fast it can unravel with Kontos on the mound in the 9'th.

With the win, the Giants take an unexpected 1-0 lead in the series.  Madison Bumgarner goes tonight against Doug Fister.  OGC has a nice pre-game analysis up on his blog, so check it out.  We don't know which version of Bummy is going to show up, but Fister has trouble with LH bats and trouble pitching in road games.  Giants have already accomplished what they had to do in the first 2 home games, but it sure would be nice to go to Detroit up 2-0.

Go Giants!!