The Giants jumped to a 6–0 lead in the fifth inning en route to a 8–3 victory in Game 1, on the strength of Pablo Sandoval's 4-for-4 with 4 RBI, on three home runs his first three times up and a final single. He joined Babe Ruth (in 1926 & 1928), Reggie Jackson (in 1977) and Albert Pujols (in 2011) as the only players ever to hit three home runs in one World Series game. Sandoval was the first player to hit three homers in Game 1 of the Series, and the only one to homer in his first three plate appearances. Tiger ace Justin Verlander lasted only four innings, giving up five Giant runs, including Sandoval's first two homers. San Francisco starting pitcher Barry Zito did much better, allowing only one run in 5 2⁄3 innings. The Giants scored their final two runs in the seventh inning off demoted Tigers closer José Valverde, who hadn't pitched since Game 1 of the ALCS and who had surrendered nine earned runs in his last two appearances, against the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS and the Athletics in Game 4 of the ALCS, for two consecutive ninth-inning blown-save collapses in 3 1⁄3 postseason innings. Jhonny Peralta hit the Tigers' only home run, for two meaningless runs in the ninth with the game out of reach.
After Zito had allowed a run on three hits in the sixth inning, he was relieved by Tim Lincecum, who pitched 2 1⁄3 perfect innings with five strikeouts. It was only the second World Series game in which three Cy Young Award winners (Lincecum, Verlander and Zito) pitched; the first time it happened was Game 3 of the 1983 World Series, when Steve Carlton started for the Philadelphia Phillies vs. Mike Flanagan for the world champion Baltimore Orioles and was relieved by Jim Palmer.
In game two of the series the Giants went ahead 2–0 in the series after winning Game 2. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the seventh when, with the bases loaded and nobody out, Brandon Crawford grounded into a double play scoring Hunter Pence, whose sacrifice fly in the eighth, with the bases loaded and one out, in turn scored Angél Pagán with the second and last Giant run. The Tigers' best chance to score occurred in top of the second. With Prince Fielder on first, slugger Delmon Young lined a double into the left field corner. Fielder was sent home on a gamble by third base coach Gene Lamont, but was tagged out on a close play at the plate by catcher Buster Posey after two perfect relay throws (from left fielder Gregor Blanco and, moving to the left side of the diamond to serve as the backup cutoff man after Blanco had overthrown shortstop Brandon Crawford as the intended lead cutoff man, second baseman Marco Scutaro). Madison Bumgarner pitched seven shutout innings, yielding only two hits with eight strikeouts, for the win.
With their 2–0 victory in Game 3, the Giants became the first team in a World Series to record back-to-back shutouts since the Baltimore Orioles threw three straight against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Games 2-4, completing a sweep of the 1966; and the first NL team to do so since the Cincinnati Reds threw back-to-back shutouts against the Chicago White Sox (soon to be disgraced as the traitorous Series-throwing Black Sox) in 1919. San Francisco starter Ryan Vogelsong pitched 5 2⁄3 shutout innings. Detroit had the bases loaded with one out in the fifth inning, but Vogelsong got Quintin Berry to strike out swinging and Triple-Crown-winning Miguél Cabréra to pop out harmlessly on the second pitch (after lining a hard grounder just foul past the first base on the first pitch) to end the Tigers' scoring threat. The only runs of the game were scored in the Giant half of the second inning, on a one-out triple by Gregor Blanco scoring Hunter Pence from second and a hard two-out single by Brandon Crawford scoring Blanco.
And finally in game four, it took a hero to put the series away in extra innings. Marco Scutaro's RBI single in the top of the tenth, allowing Ryan Theriot to score, was the difference in the Giants' 4–3 victory in Game 4, sweeping the Tigers to win the World Series. San Francisco had scored first in the top of the second when Brandon Belt tripled to right field with one out, scoring Hunter Pence just as they had done in the same inning of Game 3, but this time the Giants could not score Belt from third even with two hard-hit balls (Blanco's hard grounder right at second baseman Infánte, and Crawford's near-gapper to right-center run down by right fielder Dirks).[30] Detroit took the lead in the 3rd inning with Miguél Cabréra's two-run homer off Matt Cain, an otherwise-routine windblown high fly that just made it over the wall in right-center for a fluke off-field round-tripper which gave the Tigers their first and only lead of the Series, ending a 20-inning scoreless streak.[31] The Giants regained the lead with Buster Posey's resounding blast for a two-run homer in the top of the sixth just to the right of the left field foul pole, but Delmon Young tied the game on a Matt Cain hanging slider with a line shot off-field solo home run to right-center in the bottom of the frame. After stellar relief from Jeremy Affeldt and winning pitcher Santiágo Casílla in the eighth and ninth followed by Marco Scútaro's winning single in the top of the tenth scoring designated hitter Ryan Theriot, who had opened the inning with a clean single, closer Sergio Romo struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th, ending with a called third strike on Cabréra on a surprise tailing fastball (after several consecutive hard sliders) for the last out (and his third save) of the Series.
Since the home team (Tigers) did not win the Series, the trophies for the winning team (Giants) and Most Valuable Player (Sándoval, who hit .500 added to the three home runs his first three times up in Game 1) were presented in the visiting team's locker room.
So there you have it. Here's my theory on the series. The Tigers had been hot as a wildfire coming into things after beating Oakland in five and then sweeping the Yankees in four to get to the series. But they had time off between the end of the ALCS and the start of the World Series. The Giants had to go a full seven games against the Cardinals to win the NLCS so they had been playing a bit more. Detroit's bats had gone cold which would explain their lack of offensive production in the entire series. As I have said in previous blog postings, teams need to get and try and stay hot in the post season. Detroit was hot through the first two rounds, but due to the time off between series, they weren't able to keep momentum going in the fall classic, and the Giants just kept rolling right along after winning their series against St. Louis.
So Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning their second world title in three years and their seventh world title overall!
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