The Giants’ Pablo Sandoval hit a home run in the first inning, in the third inning, and in the fifth inning. His was only the ninth three-homer performance in postseason history. More Photos »
SAN FRANCISCO — It is brief and illustrious, the list of baseball players who have hit three home runs during a World Series game: Albert Pujols, Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth, who achieved the feat twice.
Now add to it Pablo Sandoval, the San Francisco Giants’ smiling, rotund third baseman, who slammed homers in his first three at-bats Wednesday to power his team to an 8-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series.
Sandoval’s home runs came in the first, third and fifth innings, inciting hysterics from the announced crowd of 42,855 at AT&T Park and helping to provide a surplus of support to Barry Zito, who pitched five and two-thirds innings to earn the victory. Sandoval’s was only the ninth three-homer performance in postseason history.
Almost as surprising as Sandoval’s outburst at the plate were the struggles of Justin Verlander, the Tigers’ strapping ace, considered by many to be baseball’s best pitcher. Verlander had cast a long shadow upon the series well before it began, but it disappeared Wednesday afternoon as the sun set behind the ballpark.
Leading into the game, a popular train of thought ran this way: the Giants only had five winnable games at their disposable, so automatic was Verlander — a five-time All-Star, a former winner of the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards, and perennial strikeout champion — who scheduled to start two games for the Tigers.
But Sandoval and the Giants exploded such notions, pestering Verlander through his stunningly mediocre outing. He lasted just four innings, while giving up six hits, five runs and one walk, striking out four. The Tigers had last played on Oct. 18, when they finished their four-game sweep of the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, and Verlander, who entered this game 7-0 through his last seven starts, may have lost his edge.
The Giants spent that time turning their home field into a feel-good outdoor festival site. And the collective love on display late Monday night, when the Giants and their fans celebrated the team’s World Series berth under a sudden, surreal downpour, was revived quickly on Wednesday.
In the first inning, Sandoval, who hit a three-run triple off Verlander during the All-Star Game, fell behind to him, 0-2. But Verlander left a fastball high and flat, and Sandoval crushed it into the right-center field seats. It was only the sixth time in Verlander’s career that he allowed a home run on a 0-2 count.
Unlike Zito, who mostly cruised through his outing, Verlander faced a battle in every at-bat. It was almost alarming: the strikeout king could not put anyone away. In third, Angel Pagan capped an eight-pitch at-bat by chopping a ball off the bag at third for a fortuitous double. Marco Scutaro then finished his own eight-pitch battle by slashing a run-scoring single to center. Scutaro extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
After him came Sandoval, who belted an outside fastball into the left-field stands for two runs and circled the bases with his right fist raised. Two home runs seemed unlikely enough, and a split-second of stunned silence gave way to deafening cheers in the fifth when Sandoval clubbed his third, this one off Al Alburquerque. In Sandoval’s fourth at-bat, he merely singled.
Sandoval was something of a forgotten man during the Giants’ championship run in 2010. He went 3 for 17 during those playoffs and played in just one World Series game, going hitless. Zito was excluded altogether, left off the playoff roster, which has made his renaissance this October fascinating.
Zito, 34, embodied a sharp contrast to the power game of Verlander, flipping 72-miles-per-hour curveballs and sneaking fastballs around the back alleys of the strike zone. He eased through the early going, talking to himself incessantly while on the bench, and even contributed to Verlander’s misery by driving in a run in the fourth with a swing that resembled a tennis player’s backhand volley.
Zito gave up his only run in the sixth, when Miguel Cabrera ripped a run-scoring single to center field. Zito left that inning with two outs and two men on base, and Tim Lincecum ended it by coming in and striking out Jhonny Peralta. Lincecum, who pitched two and one-third innings, striking out five, strengthened a group of relievers who seem to have clicked effectively into their roles. George Kontos, finishing the blowout in the ninth, gave up a two-run homer to Peralta.
The Tigers’ bullpen remained worrisome. Jose Valverde, the Tigers’ former closer who has been hit hard in recent weeks, began the seventh inning and gave up run-scoring singles to Scutaro and Buster Posey before being removed.
His struggles represented perhaps the biggest headache for Tigers Manager Jim Leyland this postseason. But that was before Verlander turned shockingly normal Wednesday, before Sandoval swatted his way into one of baseball’s most exclusive groups.
