Gamethread: 2012 World Series Game 1

Due to the coronavirus outbreak suspending the 2020 MLB season, we’re rewatching the three San Francisco Giants postseason runs, game-by-game, on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday nights at 6 p.m. PT, with a gamethread for each.

The San Francisco Giants pulled off the nearly impossible by winning six straight elimination games to advance to their second World Series in three years. After falling behind the Cincinnati Reds 2-0, they won three straight games — all on the road — to advance to the NLCS. There they fell behind the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1, but once again rattled off three straight wins.

To the World Series they go, where they meet the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers went 88-74 on the year, beat the Oakland A’s 3-2 in the ALDS, and swept the New York Yankees 4-0 in the ALCS.

The series starts in San Francisco.

The Giants are kicking things off with unexpected NLCS hero Barry Zito, who finished the year with a 15-8 record, a 4.15 ERA, a 4.49 FIP, and 114 strikeouts in 184.1 innings.

The Tigers are sending Justin Verlander to the mound. Verlander finished the year with a 17-8 record, a 2.64 ERA, a 2.94 ERA, and 239 strikeouts in 238.1 innings. He made the All-Star team and, a year after winning both the Cy Young and MVP awards, finished second and eighth, respectively.

We’re starting this rewatch at the same time as all of the rewatches: 6 p.m. PT. The video isn’t embeddable, but you can find it by clicking here, then you can watch or cast from your browser. Or you can find it on YouTube by searching “2012 World Series Game 1” and clicking the first link.

The actual action starts a little more than 8 minutes in, so if you want to skip the pregame you can come back at 6:08 p.m. and use this link.

Here’s the Tigers lineup for Game 1:

1. Austin Jackson — CF
2. Omar Infante — 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera — 3B
4. Prince Fielder — 1B
5. Delmon Young — LF
6. Jhonny Peralta — SS
7. Avisail Garcia — RF
8. Alex Avila — C
9. Justin Verlander — P

And the Giants lineup:

1. Angel Pagan — CF
2. Marco Scutaro — 2B
3. Pablo Sandoval — 3B
4. Buster Posey — C
5. Hunter Pence — RF
6. Brandon Belt — 1B
7. Gregor Blanco — LF
8. Brandon Crawford — SS
9. Barry Zito — P