Giants Sweep 2012 World Series With Game 4 Win (4 To 3)!!!

Go Giants!!!!
We are ORANGE inside…
Comments and observations:  Okay, as improbable a World Series as can be imagined is now over and the San Francisco Giants are world champions!!  This is the team’s seventh championship (five were won in New York before the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958) and the second in three years.
Although the Giants finished with a better regular season record than Detroit, the Tigers were considered the odds-on favorite to win the Series because they have the best pitcher and the best hitter in baseball.  The problem with this proposition is the pitcher only plays twice in a seven game series and so only gets two opportunities to dominate.  In this case, Detroit’s best pitcher (Verlander) didn’t win his first game and his team never got him to his second appearance (Game 5).  The other side of the proposition is that their best hitter (Cabrera) went cold and their second best hitter (Fielder) was positively frigid.
On the flip side, the Giants best hitter (Posey) had a so-so Series hitting (homered tonight for two runs), but played well as catcher.  The main difference was the rest of the team – particularly the entire pitching staff, starters, relievers and closer – were dominant.  It’s a baseball given that great pitching beats great hitting in the playoffs, and there was nothing in this Series to contradict that truism from Detroit.  I think the second big difference was the home field advantage the Giants had because the National League won the All-Star Game.  This allowed the Giants to open with the first two games at home.  Even disallowing Sandoval’s three home runs in Game 1 (4 RBIs), Verlander did not have a “great” game and Detroit would probably have still lost as the game ended 8 to 3.  Thus began the fall…
Confirming / continuing my math commentary from prior posts, the Giants won game 1.  The winner of game 1 goes on to win the Series 60% of the time.  The Giants won game 2.  The team which starts off the World Series with two wins goes on to win 79% of the time.  The Giants won Game 3.  The team which starts the Series with three wins has won all 24 of the times this has happened.  Twenty-one times the team with three wins has gone on to win the fourth game for a sweep and no team has managed to make it to Game 6 after falling behind by 3-0 in the Series.  While probabilities are not certainties, they do tend to be reliably predictive.
Like most baseball fans, I will have a week or so of “withdrawal” as baseball is now over for the year.  Oh well, I draw comfort from knowing I face the off-season with the S.F. Giants having won the last game of World Series!!
For the last time this year:  Go Giants!!!!  We are ORANGE inside…  Congratulations and we love you!!!
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On This Day In:
2021	Why We Have So Few Personal Favorites
	I Would Have Liked You Anyway
2020	Why We Must Vote #45 Out
	If You Believe
2019	Sometimes I Still Have Trouble Sleeping
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2018	And Flights Of Fancy
	Dodgers Lose 2nd Consecutive World Series!!
2017	By Their Acts Thy Shall Know Them
2016	Remembering
2015	One
2014	Sure Experiments And Demonstrated Arguments
2013	Irrational Complacency
2012	Why Criticize?
	Giants Sweep 2012 World Series With Game 4 Win (4 To 3)!!!
2011	Saying Just Enough
2010	Giants Win Game 2 Shutout of Rangers – 9 to 0!!!

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Why Criticize?

I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
—    James Baldwin
From:  “Notes of a Native Son“
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On This Day In:
2021	Why We Have So Few Personal Favorites
	I Would Have Liked You Anyway
2020	Why We Must Vote #45 Out
	If You Believe
2019	Sometimes I Still Have Trouble Sleeping
	Public Ridicule For Office Holder
2018	And Flights Of Fancy
	Dodgers Lose 2nd Consecutive World Series!!
2017	By Their Acts Thy Shall Know Them
2016	Remembering
2015	One
2014	Sure Experiments And Demonstrated Arguments
2013	Irrational Complacency
2012	Why Criticize?
	Giants Sweep 2012 World Series With Game 4 Win (4 To 3)!!!
2011	Saying Just Enough
2010	Giants Win Game 2 Shutout of Rangers – 9 to 0!!!

Read Full Post »