World Series: Giants Ready for Verlander, Tigers

Well, if you watched the NLDS and saw the Giants comeback from the unthinkable with three straight wins on the road to get to the NLCS, you might of saw this comeback vs. St. Louis coming.

After Zito won that crucial game five to get the series back to San Francisco, I just had a really good feeling about things. The starting pitching locked things up and fed off Zito like I was hoping they would, and Ryan Vogelsong and Matt Cain turned in a few of the most clutch pitching performances I've seen in a while. The trio of Giants starters held the potent Cardinals lineup to just 1 run over those final three games, and reminded all of us that they're still the incredible pitching staff we've grown to know here in San Francisco. What really stuck out for me in games 6 and 7 was the Giants finally woke up the offense at home in AT&T Park. We saw them tap into it in game two, but for the most part, the Giants had been struggling to score on their home field. They had no such trouble in those last two games with the Cardinals though, as it seemed like just about everybody contributed something. The defense also tightened up when it had to, that catch Crawford made early in game seven saved a run and it played a huge role in keeping Cards down. If you would have told me the Giants would have won this series with Buster Posey hitting around .100, I would have called you crazy, but NLCS MVP Marco Scutaro more than made up for Posey's down time with his crisp .500 average.

Just about everything went right for the Giants at home, for the first time in a while, and with Detroit rolling into town for games 1 and 2 of the World Series, they're going to have to keep it up. Bochy will likely announce Tuesday that Barry Zito, the hero of game 5, will take the ball in game one and the Giants will be looking for their 14th straight win behind Zito. I'm not expecting Zito to go out and shut down Detroit like he just did St. Louis, but he's obviously throwing the ball with confidence right now and I have no problem whatsoever with Boch's decision. The real key for the Giants in game one will be getting some runs on the board for the lefty, as they'll face up against the best pitcher in baseball in Justin Verlander. One thing the Giants haven't really had  to face this postseason, with Johnny Cueto going down early in game 1 of the NLDS, and the Cardinals not really having one, is a true ace. Verlander is as true as they come and if this postseason has been any indication, he'll be on point Wednesday. The Giants just need to keep doing what they've been doing though. Playing smart situational ball, moving the runners over, catching the baseball and most importantly, driving in that runner from third with less than 2 outs. They've shown that when they stay on their fundamentals, the other things just fall into place for them. After all, they're a team that takes advantage of other teams mistakes like no other I've seen.

Obviously, it would be nice to get some more production out of Pence and Posey in this series as well. The Tigers offense is no joke, with Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young, among others, so the Giants will have to put some runs on the board in order to beat this team. We saw Pence starting to heat up towards the end of the NLCS and it will be interesting to see if he can carry that over. As for Buster, even if he's struggling, he's just a swing away from breaking open a game, and the last thing he can do at this point is start to press. With the way the team has played behind him though, he shouldn't feel the need to... I know one thing for sure, if they do face another elimination situation, I think we all know by now they won't lay down!