Pablo Sandoval Belts Three Homers as Giants Take Game 1 of World Series

San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who hit 12 home runs during the regular season, joined Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, and Albert Pujols as the only players to hit three homers in one world series game on October 24th as he helped the Giants to an 8-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the 2012 World Series in San Francisco.  Ruth and Jackson are in the Hall of Fame and Pujols will be there too after he retires, so that’s pretty good company.

Sandoval hit two of the homers off Tigers’ ace Justin Verlander, who had an uncharacteristically crappy outing, allowing five runs and six hits in four innings.  Detroits’ pitching in general wasn’t very good.  Jose Valverde, who had 35 saves as the Tigers’ closer, looks like he’s finished here in the postseason.  Valverde gave up two runs and four hits in one third of an inning, and raised his post season ERA to 30.38.  Opposing hitters are batting .579 against him.

It’s a rocky start for Detroit, but if they can rebound and take game two, they’ll go home to Detroit with the series tied at 1-1.  That’s generally a good position to be in, so Tigers’ fans can hold of on the panic button for now.  Still, it’s a bit disturbing to see Verlander have such a poor performance.  He is now 0-3 with a 7.20 ERA in three career World Series games dating back to 2006.