reCAP: World Series Game 4 – San Francisco Giants vs. Detroit Tigers

10/29/12

First off, I would like to congratulate the San Francisco Giants for winning the World Series. They earned that trophy with all of their hard work and determination. They had to overcome adversity throughout the first two rounds of their playoff run. In the NLDS, they had to come behind from a 2-0 deficit in the series to win the series 3-2 to advance to the NLCS. Following the division win, in the NLCS, they had to come from behind from a 3-1 deficit in the series to win the series 4-3 and advance to the World Series. At the end of the day, the World Series was the easiest playoff round the Giants had this year sweeping the Tigers 4-0.

In my Game 3 entry I predicted that this would be a low scoring pitchers’ duel. This game was not as low scoring as it was for the past 2 games. Last night’s final game of the series had offense.

Max Scherzer pitched a solid game. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, gave up 7 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, and struck out 8 hitters. He only gave up a few mistakes in his outing. One mistake was leaving a fastball tailing towards the inner half of the plate to Hunter Pence. He shot a rocket into left centerfield for a ground rule double. You would think Scherzer would learn from that mistake not to throw anything inside towards the next hitter, which was Brandon Belt right? Guess what, he didn’t learn from his mistake. Belt hit a line drive into right field that almost cleared the wall for an RBI triple which made it 1-0 Giants.  The pitch was an inside fastball that tailed towards the middle of the plate. The last mistake that Scherzer had was hanging a slider over the middle of the plate to Buster Posey for a 2-run homer in the sixth inning that had the Giants take a 3-2 lead. The Tigers bullpen pitched well for most of this game until Phil Coke allowed, which turned out to be, the game-winning RBI single by Marco Scutaro in the 10^th inning to make it a 4-3 game.

Matt Cain pitched well in this game. He pitched 7 innings, gave up 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, and struck out 5 hitters. I don’t think Matt Cain made too many mistake pitches like Scherzer did. All of the Tigers runs came on homeruns by Miguel Cabrera and Delmon Young. In the third inning, Cabrera hit a 2-run opposite field homerun that just cleared the fence in right field that was aided by the wind. The sixth inning looked more like a game of anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better. When Buster Posey hit his 2-run homer, Delmon Young answered back with a solo homerun of his own to tie the game at 3 apiece. The Giants bullpen once again pitched brilliantly for 3 innings and left the Tigers hitless. They had only two more base runners in the game, which happened on a walk by Jeremy Affeldt and a hit batter by Santiago Casilla. Omar Infante was hit on the hand in the ninth inning and had to leave the game. He fractured his hand according to the MRI scan. In the end, Sergio Romo pitched the final inning of the World Series and threw the gutsiest pitch he’s ever thrown to the best hitter in the game, which is Cabrera. Romo threw a fastball down the middle of the plate that caught Cabrera looking to end the World Series.

Pablo Sandoval got the World Series MVP, which he rightfully deserved. He had a .500 batting average with 3 homeruns and 4 RBI’s in the World Series.

Prince Fielders gets the LVP (least valuable player) in my book. The highest paid hitter in the World Series could only muster one hit in 12 at bats.

Did the Giants deserve winning the World Series or was it simply luck? Sound off and have a nice offseason. I’ll be back with Phillies recaps on April 1, 2013. In the meantime, stay tuned for my football blogs and other interesting sports reCAPS.