For the second time in three years the San Francisco Giants have won the World Series. After going to the limit and winning decisive final games in the first two series the Giants completed a sweep of the Detroit Tigers to earn the championship of Major League Baseball. And even completing the sweep they needed 10 innings to do it.
Detroit had entered the World Series as a favorite for a number of reasons–they had dominated the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series and they had their pitching rotation set up perfectly. This meant that the Giants would face their ace–and argubably the best pitcher in baseball–Justin Verlander in Games 1, 5 and possibly even a potential Game 7.
Verlander would be a complete non issue. The Giants beat up on Verlander in Game 1 and the Tigers never recovered. The concern entering the World Series was the Giants’ hitting but that wasn’t a problem in the least during their four game sweep. Pablo Sandoval was named World Series MVP but recently acquired Marco Scutaro deserved an honorable mention. Scutaro was acquired late in the season and miraculously transformed himself from career journeyman to a valuable cog in the Giants’ team.
San Francisco General Manager Brian Sabean quipped:
“Detroit probably didn’t know what it was in for. Our guys had a date with destiny.”
Game 4 had the added diminsion of adverse weather including cold temperatures, brutal winds and even some rain.
San Francisco’s Buster Posey noted:
“Tonight was a battle. And I think tonight was a fitting way for us to end it because those guys played hard. They didn’t stop, and it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
The Giants’ new found emotional leader Scutaro summed up the victory:
“That’s what makes it so much special, the way we did it. We’re always against the wall and my team, it just came through first series, second series and now we sweep the Tigers.”
The real decisive component of the Giants’ victory was their pitching. San Francisco held Detroit to a series batting average .159, the third lowest batting average in World Series history (the lowest were the 1966 Dodgers hitting .142 and the 1969 Orioles hitting .146).
