The Detroit Tigers will take on the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Game 1 tonight, Wednesday, October 23, at 8:00 PM. Justin Verlander will start game 1 for Detroit.
World Series Predictions:
The Tigers will win in 6 games. The pitching is just too strong for Detroit at the moment. A long layoff between the ALCS and the World Series may be a cause of concern for them though. Detroit may come out flat, but they’re too talented to lose this series.
Season Recap
The 2012 season for the Detroit Tigers has been a long roller coaster. Before the season started, many were doubters after Victor Martinez tore his ACL and it was announced he was out for the season. Soon after that, GM Dave Dombrowski made one of, if not the biggest splash, in the MLB all year.
The Tigers signed 1B Prince Fielder to a MEGA-DEAL for a 9 year, 214 million dollar contract. This caused superstar 1B, at the time, Miguel Cabrera to move back to 3B. Cabrera has played 3B in his early years of his MLB career for the Florida Marlins. The Tigers were looked at as the team with the best 1-2 punch in the league with Prince Fielder hitting behind Miguel Cabrera.
The Tigers’ season started off great; it looked as if they were going to break records this year for hitting. In the first six games of the year, the Tigers won five of them, and scored 40 runs while doing so.
Although, the hot streak for the Tigers soon cooled off. Going into the All-Star break, the Tigers were a measly 44-42, which was good enough for 3rd place in their own division. The White Sox held a 3.5 game lead on Tigers, while the Cleveland Indians were also ahead of Detroit. The Tigers were the 8th best team in the AL, and had the 16th best record in the whole MLB.
As the season went along, Chicago was still playing as if they were the team to beat in the AL Central. They led the division practically the entire year. The Tigers had to make a strong charge at the end of the year if they wanted to make the playoffs. So that’s they did.
In sports, the best thing that can happen to a team is to catch fire at just the right time. That is exactly what happened with this Detroit Tigers team. The Tigers won 8 of their last 10 games to overtake first place and win the AL Central. The Tigers started to roll and it was showing. They rolled right into the playoffs, and entered as arguably the hottest team in the league that had a boatload of talent.
The Tigers got matched up with the young Oakland Athletics in the ALDS. Detroit won the first two in Detroit. Then, the A’s took the next two in Oakland. In the game 5 elimination game, the Tigers beat the A’s 6-0 with SP Justin Verlander pitching a complete game shutout.
The Tigers advanced to the ALCS to play the New York Yankees. Detroit went on to surprise the world when they easily swept the Yankees in 4 games.
In the beginning of the year, everybody thought that the strength of the team would no doubt be the hitting. But, in this postseason, the starting pitching for the Tigers has been phenomenal to say the least. The Tigers rotation has been nearly flawless.
In the ALCS with the Yankees, the Tigers starting pitching gave up only two run in 27 1/3 innings for a 0.66 ERA. So far this postseason, the Tigers starters have an ERA of 1.02.
The Tigers have done what every team in the league wish they could do. Catch fire at the perfect time (end of regular season and bringing it into the playoffs). The Tigers are rolling right now and are hoping to win their first World Series since 1984.