Detroit Tigers vs. San Francisco Giants World Series review – Part 1
After hammering the New York Yankees 4-0 in the best of seven match American League Championship Series, the Detroit Tigers were the favourites to win their first World Series title since 1984. The fans were also desperate to see their team perform well
against the well tested San Francisco Giants.
In Game 1 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, however, Jim Leyland and company were unable to execute their game plan and the Giants took complete advantage of their errors to secure a comfortable victory.
Tigers’ hard throwing ace Justin Verlander, who had been brilliant all through the post-season, was unable control his nerves under pressure as he allowed six hits and five runs in just four innings to take an embarrassing loss.
Relief pitcher Al Alburquerque and Jose Valverde also had a terrible time on the mound as they combined to give up five hits and three runs in just over two innings. Giants stuck to their plan against Verlander to gain big psychological advantage over their
opponents.
"We played our last game only two days ago," Sandoval said. "We're still hot. We just came here and played our game."
"I just didn't execute tonight," Verlander said. "It was kind of a battle from the get-go. They took advantage of that and swung the bat pretty well, especially Pablo and (Marco) Scutaro. A couple of good bounces their way, bad for us."
"I'm one that's been around long enough to know that a lot of things happen in this game. This was a big-hyped game with Justin, probably a lot of pressure on him," Leyland said.
Third baseman Pablo Sandoval played a big part in deciding the outcome of the clash as he hit three home-runs to help his side stack up a huge total on the board. He showed no respect for the Tigers’ ace, belting two mighty home-runs against him and the
Giants rode his excellent performance to claim an impassable 6-0 lead in the sixth inning.
For the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera singled to centre in the sixth and Jhonny Peralta smacked a two run home-run to centre in the ninth but the night belonged to the Giants who had no problems in holding on to their five run lead.
San Francisco’s starter Barry Zito showed impressive throwing abilities as he allowed just six hits and one run in five plus innings to help his side take complete control of the situation. Relief pitcher Tim Lincecum also made his presence with two plus
shut-out innings.
The Giants continued their domination in Game 2 of the series as well. Using their home conditions superbly, they outclassed their opponents in finer details of the game to claim a vital 2-0 series lead.
Tigers’ starter Doug Fister pitched with great control and accuracy as he allowed just four hits and one run in six sold innings but the offence did not support him. Giants scored back-to-back runs in the seventh and the eight and then held on to their slim
lead to take 2-0 series lead.
It was a disappointing result for Manager Jim Leyland and General Manager Dave Dombrowski. Having spent considerable amount of money to improve their offensive skills in the offseason, they expected the batters to score runs on regular basis but that did
not turn out to be the case in first two games of the World Series.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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