Here’s my column off last night’s game, focusing on the remarkable performance by Pablo Sandoval.
What is the statistical likelihood of a feat being accomplished just five times in over 100 years’ worth of World Series games, and then the last two times it happens just five Fall Classic games apart? The second time in a strong pitchers’ ballpark?
What is the statistical likelihood of Cliff Lee and Justin Verlander putting together tremendous first and second rounds and then both getting pummeled in Game 1 of the World Series by underwhelming Giants lineups?
It’s why I’m taking this moment to coin a new phrase: You can’t predict baseball. You shouldn’t even try.
No? Not new? Sorry.
–There was déjà vu all over the joint last night. If the callbacks to 2010 weren’t enough, then Jim Leyland wondered whether Verlander was off because of too much rest (seven days). That was a theme in the 2006 World Series, when the Tigers looked extremely rusty against the Cardinals, going down in five games, after their ALCS sweep of the A’s gave them six days off.
–A key play occurred in the third inning, when Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera waited back on an Angel Pagan dribbler. The ball hit the bag and skipped into leftfield, and Pagan hustled it out for a double. NLCS MVP Marco Scutaro followed with a run-scoring single and then Sandoval hit his second homer.
And all I could think, after watching the Pagan hit, was that Eric Chavez would’ve played it the same way as Cabrera did, whereas the theoretical Alex Rodriguez, sitting on the bench, would’ve charged it and thrown out Pagan.
–The Tigers probably can come back and win this thing even with Jose Valverde out of commission. It looks like they’ll have to, though. Jim Leyland put Valverde in the game with the Tigers trailing, 6-0, in the seventh, a good opportunity for Valverde — who hadn’t pitched since giving up a 4-0 lead to the Yankees in ALCS Game 1 — to right himself and build some positive momentum.
Valverde looked awful — “You know, it’s a little bit puzzling, to be honest with you,” Leyland said afterward — and it’s fair to wonder whether he’ll play any role the rest of the way besides mop-up man.
–Yes, Tim Lincecum is an excellent bullpen weapon, as we saw again last night, but let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture. This is a guy who was the Giants’ Game 1 starter two years ago in the aforementioned contest against Lee. An ace is a far better weapon than a bullpen guy. That’s what the Giants hope to regain next year.
–Great moment in the middle of the game, if you missed it, involving the organization Stand Up To Cancer. The idea is that you hold a sign “standing up” for someone you know with cancer. In the Fox booth, play-by-play broadcaster Joe Buck stood up for Players Association Michael Weiner, who is battling a brain tumor (and attended last night’s game), while color commentator Tim McCarver stood up for Mets senior director of media relations Shannon Forde, who is fighting Stage 4 breast cancer. They are two superb, brave people for whom there are myriad thoughts and prayers. And the same to all of you, your friends and family members who are going at it with this disease.
–Have a great day.