Verwho
Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander rocked in Game 1 of the World Series, the latest victim of the San Francisco Giants' postseason of destinyJustin Verlander was supposed to put an end to all the talk of destiny that has this city in a baseball-crazed state for the World Series. Instead, the most dominant pitcher in the land fizzled in a shocking 8-3 loss to the Giants.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, October 25, 2012,
SAN FRANCISCO — Justin Verlander was supposed to put an end to all the talk of destiny that has this city in a baseball-crazed state for the World Series. The Giants might have the strongest will of any team in the game, but surely that would only go so far against the most dominating pitcher in the land.
Nobody, including the Yankees, had done a thing with Verlander in his three postseason starts. With him the question usually is whether he’ll go the distance, as if he’s Bob Gibson nearly a half-century later.
But not on this night.
He was gone after four innings, trailing 5-0 in this Game 1 that would end 8-3 Giants. And afterward it was Tigers manager Jim Leyland who summed up his ace’s night most succinctly.
“You know, he wasn’t terrible,” Leyland said. “He just wasn’t good.”
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Leyland didn’t quite seem to believe it. Not only did Verlander give up two of Pablo Sandoval’s three home runs, a feat that put the Giants third baseman in the rarest of company, but the righthander didn’t have his usual overpowering velocity.
“It’s a little bit puzzling,” Leyland said.
Verlander didn’t have any definitive answers. He repeatedly said he had been “out of sync,” unable throw his fastball with his usual command. He said he couldn’t be sure if the seven days between starts was the cause, but the more he talked, the more it sounded as if that is what he believed.
“Obviously I’m a creature of habit,” he said. “But who cares? It’s the World Series. During the course of a season you’re going to be out of sync sometimes, whether it’s five days or nine days.
“You can’t be on all the time. I don’t know why. I just know I wasn’t executing my pitches and they took advantage of it.”
Verlander said Sandoval’s first home run came on a fastball that “I tried to elevate, but didn’t get it high enough,” and the second was a 2-0 fastball that “I had to throw for a strike.”
As he stood surrounded at his locker, Verlander answered the questions matter-of-factly. If he was distraught, he wasn’t letting it show.
Obviously this could be a game that changes the course of this World Series, since Verlander was supposed to be the difference-maker for the Tigers. But he shrugged off any such notion and insisted his team would be just fine.
“I know everybody says, ‘Verlander lost so the Tigers are going to lose,’ ” he said, “but that’s not the case. If you’ve been watching, you know how well the other three guys have been pitching.”
We’ll see about that. For the moment, this only fuels the notion that one way or another, the Giants are destined to be champs. All season their pop-gun offense hit 103 home runs, by far the lowest total in the majors, and they go home run derby on Verlander in Game 1?
Even winning pitcher Barry Zito, who baffled the Tigers with his assortment of soft stuff, had to shake his head.
“I figured if we were going to beat Verlander, it was going to have to be 1-0 or maybe 2-0,” he said. “To do what we did was just awesome, man.”
Yes, at this point the Giants have to think they may never lose again. They have won six elimination games already in this postseason, and four straight now since falling behind the Cardinals 3-1.
It’s the best kind of underdog story, all the more so because they didn’t give in to the temptation of bringing back drug cheat Melky Cabrera for this October party.
Cabrera, remember, was eligible to return from his 50-game suspension and could have been added to the roster for the NLCS against the Cardinals. The Giants never even considered it.
You wonder how many ballclubs in that position would have done the same with a .346 hitter.
The Cabrera affair is testament to the mental toughness that defines the Giants. They went 30-15 after losing Cabrera to win the NL West, and then thanks mainly to journeyman infielder Marco Scutaro, they refused to lose when pushed to the brink in the postseason.
For that and many reasons, the Giants are an easy team to root for. Only it’s hard to call them underdogs anymore.
Verlander was supposed to bring the party in this city to a halt, put the Giants in their place. Instead he was left standing at his locker with a blank look on his face, as if he, like so many people, couldn’t quite believe it either.
