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Giants continue to impress

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Giants continue to impress

The World Series began with a bang last Wednesday with the San Francisco Giants dominating the Detroit Tigers 8-3 at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Once I found out that the Tigers were going to face the Giants in the Fall Classic, I picked the Tigers to win it all, especially the first game.

Detroit sent their ace and the best pitcher in baseball in my opinion, Justin Verlander, to the mound in the first game to face a Giants team that just overcame a 3-1 National League Championship Series (NLCS) deficit to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Giants tied the 1985 Kansas City Royals for most wins facing elimination from the playoffs with six after their Game Seven win over St. Louis.

But Verlander struggled mightily, giving up five runs in four innings pitched in the opening game of the World Series.

I do not know how to describe Verlander’s meltdown besides that Giants’ third baseman Pablo Sandoval did his homework on him, smacking two of his three home runs in the game off of the Tigers’ ace pitcher.

Up until Wednesday night, Verlander’s earned run average (ERA) for the postseason had been lights out. The momentum was in his favor and his confidence must have been riding high going into the big game. He was on another level, maybe on another planet from everybody else, but Sandoval, who fans call “Kung Fu Panda,” brought him back to planet Earth.

I was shocked on almost every level of the turnout of Game One.

I certainly did not expect the Giants’ offense to come alive like it did. Although their offense had been improving, I still did not have faith in them to put up enough runs to win the first game facing such an elite pitcher.

Above all, I thought that the Giants’ luck would run out after winning six elimination games.

Perhaps one of the Tigers’ problems was the five day layoff between sweeping the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series (ALCS) and playing the Giants.

I think the Tigers proved that they were a little too rested, perhaps rusty, which I did not expect.

After playing 162 regular season games and additional playoff games, I assumed a nice five day rest would do wonders for the Tigers and ultimately play a huge advantage over a team that just came off a seven-game series. But I was wrong.

Meanwhile, the Giants had their backs against the wall and rattled off three consecutive wins against the Cardinals to gain great momentum coming into the World Series.

Nonetheless, I figured the well-rested Tigers led by Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera would create offensive fireworks, and if that failed, they could rely on Verlander to shut the Giants out.

But the Giants quickly reminded me of their recipe for success-outstanding pitching and timely hitting.

Although the Giants’ offense displayed a lot more than timely hitting in Game One. They proved to the Tigers that they are a dual threat with their excellent hitting and pitching.

Whatever issues the Tigers are having, they better find answers fast because they are now down 3-0 to the Giants going into Sunday and pending last night’s game, might already be hoisting World Series hardware.

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