SAN FRANCISCO 8
DETROIT 3
(Giants lead series 1-0)
With three mighty swings, Pablo Sandoval put the San Francisco Giants ahead in this World Series and put himself in a class with Mr. October.
Sandoval hit three home runs and joined Reggie Jackson, Babe Ruth and Albert Pujols as the only sluggers to do it in the Series, and the Giants jolted Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers 8-3 on Wednesday night in Game 1.
A rollicking AT&T Park crowd - a sea of black and orange outfits - roared as Sandoval connected in his first three at-bats. Popular in the Bay Area as the Kung Fu Panda for his roly-poly shape, he went 4 for 4 and drove in four runs. A Giant panda for sure.
From start to finish, it was basically a perfect game by the Giants. Coming off a Game 7 win over St. Louis on Monday night, they looked totally fresh.
"We played our last game only two days ago," Sandoval said. "We're still hot. We just came here and played our game."
Verlander, the reigning Cy Young winner, looked uncomfortable from the get-go.
As fans filed out singing along with Tony Bennett's standard I Left My Heart in San Francisco, the final score raised a nagging question for manager Jim Leyland and his favoured Tigers: Did too much rest after a playoff sweep of the Yankees mean too much rust?
Tagged by Sandoval for a solo shot in the first inning, Verlander could only mouth 'Wow!' when the Giants star launched a two-run drive in the third that set off another blast of fog horns. Sandoval reprised his power show from this year's all-star game, when his bases-loaded triple highlighted a five-run first inning against Verlander.
And if there was any doubt that Verlander was shaky, the best sign came in the fourth. That's when pitcher Barry Zito, a career .099 hitter, sliced an RBI single with two outs off the current AL MVP for a 5-0 lead.
The festive crowd stood and applauded when it was announced that Verlander was being pulled for a pinch hitter in the fifth. Sandoval gave them another reason to get up moments later when he hit a solo homer off reliever Al Alburquerque in the fifth.
