Anibal Sanchez is usually a jerk to the Giants

Maybe you're new here. Hi. Welcome. Here at McCovey Chronicles, we like to freak out about things. Some freakouts are legitimate. Some of them aren't. The important thing is that we're freaking out in some capacity. For example, when thinking about Justin Verlander before the start of the World Series, I took a bunch of Xanax. Well, actually, I didn't have any Xanax, so I took seven melatonin tabs instead and went to bed an hour earlier. But the point stands. Nothin' like a good, old-fashioned freakout.

We talked about Verlander before and after Game 1, and I'm rightfully terrified of him in Game 5 (if necessary, which of course it will be). But we didn't talk about the other Verlander. You know, the other Cy Young winner on the Tigers. Anibal Sanchez. Don't bother looking up what year he won his Cy Young award. It's there, I'm sure of it.

That's Sanchez's career line against the Giants. It's an ominous line. Sanchez also pitched one of the most memorable losses of the last couple seasons: the after-Posey waking nightmare. The game after Buster Posey was hurt, Sanchez mowed the Giants down, and I didn't move from my seat. String of spittle down to the couch and everything. It was the wrong pitcher at the wrong time. He was a guy who consistently tormented the Giants, doing it again when the whole team was in a fog.

In May, Sanchez pitched the game after we learned Pablo Sandoval's hamate bone was busted. He pitched seven innings, allowing just a run. He's kind of a jerk like that.

When the Giants saw him again at the end of May, they hit him hard. The final score of that game: 14-7. If you want to see the line-drive single from Brandon Belt that knocked him out of the game, here you go. What a pummeling!

Oh, you watched it. Yeah, no, that wasn't a line drive. The Giants did string some hard hits together, but this did a lot of harm, too. And this was the hit that started the scoring off. And Sanchez was pulled before things really got furry in that game.

So while it's tempting to look at the game logs and see that the Giants pummeled Sanchez in their last match-up, that's not totally accurate. We're still waiting for a good Anibal Sanchez pummeling.

Sanchez's fastball has been trending upward. Since Aug. 21 -- the scariest arbitrary point I could pick -- he has a 2.15 ERA in eight starts for the regular season, and a 1.35 ERA in his two postseason starts.

It's about right here that I realized there was no good reason for this post. But the completionist in me wanted to worry about Anibal Sanchez just once before Game 3. He's a pitcher with a history against the Giants -- never forget -- and I feel like I haven't had time to properly worry about it.

The part that makes me feel better: Ryan Vogelsong is checking into a hotel room right now, and he's all pissed off about something. He'll get even more pissed off by tomorrow. That calms me down. That calms me down a lot. Here's hoping the Giants give Sanchez some of the Latos treatment and make this an enjoyable arch-nemesis tour.