Is this meant to be an Orange October?
The San Francisco Giants seemed to catch all the breaks down the stretch of the NLCS and in the opening game of the 2012 World Series, things seemed to bounce their way.
While Pablo Sandoval's three mighty home runs (tying a record for a single World Series game) will be the enduring memory of the Giants' 8-3 win in Game 1, it might be a meekly hit ball off the bat of Angel Pagan that best summed up the way things have been going for this ballclub.
Though his pitch count was climbing, it seemed like Tigers starter Justin Verlander would get out of the bottom of the third inning fairly easily after he got two outs in 10 pitches. On the eighth pitch of his at-bat, making Pagan chopped a ball down the third base line. The ball took one big bounce and looked as if it was going to be easily fielded by third baseman Miguel Cabrera.
But as the Triple Crown winner waited to field the ball off the next hop, it landed on the third base bag and ricocheted unexpectedly into the outfield. With Delmon Young deep in left and the ball rolling slowly, Pagan stretched the fluke play into a double.
That set the stage for red-hot Marco Scutaro, who drove Pagan in with a sharp single to center to center field. Next up, the Panda.
The rest, as they say, is history.
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