By Josh R:
As game one of the World Series was about to start I had one thought in my head, ‘Verlander is going to dominate the Giants early on and make a statement to start this series.’ Well a statement was made in a huge way but it wasn’t by Verlander or the Tigers. The Giants rolled right into game 1 the same way they rolled out of game 7 of the NLCS; with great pitching and an explosive offense.
Pablo Sandoval
Kung fu Panda has been an up and down player in his career. 2009 he was great, 2010 he regressed some, 2011 he was great again and in 2012 he regressed again. His regressions weren’t horrible but were noticeably off from his strong seasons.
All of that doesn’t matter to Giants fans this morning as Sandoval became one of only 4 players in history to hit 3 home runs in a World Series game. Maybe you’ve heard of the other three; Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols.
If the Giants win the World Series Sandoval is going to get a lot of consideration for the MVP even if he goes 0-20 the rest of the series. What he did on the biggest stage in baseball was both impressive and what legends are made of.
Barry Zito
Once upon a time Zito was one of the most dominating pitchers in baseball while with the Oakland A’s. Then he signed with the Giants and quickly became noted as one of the worst signings in baseball. That is not only forgiven in the eyes of Giants fans, it is forgiven and Zito is being praised as the returning hero.
Against the Cardinals in the NLCS Zito went 7.2 innings of shutout ball to get the win and then followed that up last night with 5.2 innings only allowing 1 run to get the win in the first game of the World Series. Helping the Giants win the World Series will not only remove the tag that says his signing was a bad decision by the Giants, but will give him a new tag of fan favorite.
Justin Verlander
After the game Verlander said that his pitches felt off from the very beginning of his warm ups. Some people see that as an excuse but when you are talking about a pitcher as dominating as Verlander, I tend to believe him when he says things didn’t feel right. Many great athletes in baseball, basketball and many other sports can often tell when something isn’t 100% right.
Regardless of how he felt the Tigers needed Game 1 with their ace on the mound and not only did they fail to win, they got beat up pretty good. Giving the Giants more confidence can be the edge they need to win the series.
The Giants haven’t won the series, nor have the Tigers lost the series, but every game counts in the post season.
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