Freddy Sanchez and Giants pound Rangers in World Series Game 1

The conventional thinking for Game 1 of the 2010 World Series would have been “pitching duel”.  After all, it was Rangers ace Cliff Lee versus Giants ace Tim Lincecum.   But the hitters were the stars in this game as the Giants took Game 1 by a score of 11-7 on October 27th. Giants second baseman Freddy Sanchez was 4 for 5 at the plate, with 3 runs batted in.  Obscure statistic alert:  Sanchez’s first three hits were doubles, the first time in World Series history a player has hit three doubles in his first three World Series at bats.

Freddy Sanchez doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but he is a pretty good hitting second baseman with a .298 lifetime batting average.  He won the National League batting championship in 2006 when he hit .344 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The Pirates routinely purge their roster of anyone who shows any sign of being a good ballplayer, and they traded Freddy Sanchez to the Giants halfway through the 2009 season.

Both starting pitchers struggled, but Lincecum came away with the victory.  Lee pitched on eight days rest and a long layoff can sometimes affect pitchers in strange ways.  Prior to this, Lee was sparkling in the post season, with a 7-0 lifetime record and 1.26 ERA.  The Rangers are now 0-10  all time in games at San Francisco’s AT&T Park.

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Tags: cliff, freddy, san francisco giants, texas rangers, tim, world series