How upset must Justin Verlander be? Wait, how upset are Detroit Tiger fans? Game 1 brought back flashes of the 2006 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals as their ace could not put anybody away.
Call it a long layoff. Call it whatever you want. This should not happen again to a team that was once in this predicament. The Tigers should have been prepared heading into this matchup. So I'm not buying the whole five-days off thing.
Verlander simply is not a pitcher to rely on in the World Series. Apparently he just teased everybody with his ridiculous performance in the first three postseason games he pitched.
Going into Game 1, Verlander was sporting a 0.74 ERA allowing just two earned runs on two solo home runs with 25 strikeouts.
Well, Pablo Sandoval ballooned that ERA and matched that home run total in his first two at-bats. Verlander had him in an 0-2 count the first time and couldn't put him away.
After getting the previous two Giant outs on slow breaking stuff, Verlander decided to giddy-up and throw a high fastball inside.
FAIL!
Had Verlander not seen the bombs Sandoval hit off Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds pitching? They were hit off similar pitches to the one Verlander threw. Then already intimidated the first time, Verlander foolishly allowed the Panda to extend his hands as he left a fastball on the outside part of the plate.
When you're over aggressive, things fail. Verlander was over agressive once again. It seemed like he could not slow things down to think that his fastball was off.
He was even visibly upset at himself for letting his left shoulder fly open, which is never good for pitchers when they are facing big league hitters the caliber of the Giants.
Verlander might have gotten away with three strikeouts against the New York Yankees in the ALCS, but these Giants will not get themselves out and they are not struggling mightily at the plate.
Once again it is a World Series failure for Verlander who, apparently, has yet to learn how to slow things down in the biggest games.
