The Giants Win the Pennant. The Giants Win the Pennant.

Which means they go to the World Series. It opens up Wednesday night at AT&T Park. Exciting stuff. Before getting to my thoughts on the World Series match-up, let me make a few quick notes about the NLCS (which the Giants won. I know because I was there (no big deal)). Here's what we learned last night and today while reveling in the awesomeness that comes with a Pennant:

• The Giants are an NL powerhouse. You don't go to the World Series twice in three years without being discussed as one of the elite franchises in the game. Even if the Giants don't win another game this year, they'll be nationally recognized as a force to be reckoned with. After the failures of 2011, I was worried 2010 would be looked at as a fluke. Not anymore.
• The Giants also proved they can make an extended post-season run without a gimmicky video going viral. Fans have been just as excited. Nice work. Internet: you get poor marks for failing to produce such a video this year. Ashkon in 2010 was an instant classic, and I miss something similar this time around.
• Not missing this year was again some poor play by an opposing infielder. Cardinal shortstop Pete Kozma did us a few solids in the 3rd inning, first by dodging Hunter Pence's line drive, allowing a potential double play ball into the outfield, and then later by throwing home on a B-Craw chopper when he had no chance to get an out. Upon further analysis, his misplay on Pence's "tripple-double" (as Andy Baggarly brilliantly dubbed it) is probably defensible, since the ball was re-directed by Pence's bat after initial contact. Nonetheless--in addition to Scutaro in the rain--it allows for another comparison to The Shawshank Redemption:

• Finally, we learned that photos and slow-motion videos of celebratory players and fans are way cooler if pouring rain is involved.

Alas, after a night and a day to celebrate, there is one more task at hand. I really don't know too much about the Tigers, but I do know that most of the pundits will likely pick them to win the Series*. Similarly to 2010, when they cited Cliff Lee + High Powered Offense, writers will substitute in Justin Verlander. It's not an illogical viewpoint, but many will cite Verlander with an attitude of "why even play this series when we know how it will turn out?" That's what they said in 2010, and the Giants beat Cliff Lee twice. Verlander, too, is not unbeatable. Hitters on the Giants have already gotten to him once this year (All-Star Game). With that being said, he is the consensus best pitcher on the planet, and I guess I have to agree there. Which makes you wonder why the Tigers wouldn't try to get him 3 starts in this series if it goes to 7 games. They're going to stick with the 4-man rotation they've used throughout the playoffs, though, and I suppose they have their reasons (probably revolving around that 1.02 ERA their starters have posted so far in the playoffs). Still, as a Giants fan, I welcome the idea of less Verlander, and by that logic, it makes it a poor decision by the Tigers.

Going up against the best pitcher in the game is one, Barry Zito. My how far we've come. Barry Zito. Starting Game 1 of the World bleeping Series. If he can manage to beat Verlander even once in this series, does that make the contract worth it? No, probably not. Without Zito, the Giants would probably have a different (better and cheaper) starting pitcher with a better chance at beating Verlander. But it would be a good story. Speaking of stories, I'm reading a lot about how Barry Zito has resurrected his career this year, and opening the World Series is the culmination of that. It's just not true. Barry Zito is no different than he was in 2010. The difference this year is that Tim Lincecum sucks. The Giants had 4 clearly better starting pitcher options in 2010. Not so this time around. Zito is capable of doing great things. Can he do it two starts in a row? It's gonna take a lot of #RallyZito tweets.

I think I like the decision to start Bumgarner in Game 2. Detroit (unlike St. Louis) is mediocre against lefties. Plus it keeps Timmy in the bullpen, where he has shined (I postulate that this is because he has no time to think about what he's doing when coming out of the 'pen). They say Bumgarner has fixed whatever was causing him trouble the past 6 weeks -- an all-time classic "believe it when I see it" statement, but hopefully Zito can go relatively deep in Game 1, and Bumgarner will have a leprechaun-short leash in Game 2. Bummer, though, that the Giants' best starters--Cain and Vogelsong--will take on the minority of the workload, only making 3 starts between them at most.

Final thoughts:

I wonder what kind of odds you can get for Scutaro as the MVP.

It would make things a whole lot easier if Posey and Pence would start producing. 

Giants in 6.



*22 of 27 ESPN writers picked the Tigers