The World Series
Game 1
Detroit Tigers
vs.
San Francisco Giants
AT&T Park
8:00 p.m. EST
This is it. The Giants welcome the Tigers to picturesque AT&T Park to begin the 2012 edition of baseball's Fall Classic.
We've got the Triple Crown winner and reigning American League Cy Young Award winner in one dugout. In the other, we've got the wunderkind backstop tapped by many to take home the National League's MVP Award this season, a pitcher who twirled a perfect game this season.. and a whole mess of facial hair.
Game 1 features a battle by the Bay between two pitchers with Cy Young Awards at home: Barry Zito for the Giants and Justin Verlander for the Tigers. These two will be toeing the rubber at AT&T Park rather than Comerica Park thanks in large part to a poor performance by Verlander in the 2012 All-Star Game (and two hits and two RBI from a synthetically-enhanced Melky Cabrera).
Zito, who earned his Cy Young Award back in 2002 with Oakland, will try to continue his sudden, and unexpected, resurgence against a tough Tigers lineup featuring Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and All-Star masher Prince Fielder. As for Verlander, the reigning AL MVP and Cy Young winner has been outstanding during the 2012 postseason, winning all three of his starts. He has allowed just two earned runs through 24.1 innings while striking out 25 batters.
Will Verlander continue his amazing postseason with a Game 1 victory? Or will the Giants protect home field and rally behind Zito for a series-opening win?
STAY TUNED FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT GAME 1
To bring some local flavor to our Game 1 live blog, HuffPost Sports has invited HuffPost Detroit Editor Ashley Woods to join the fun. Asked to introduce herself, here's what she had to say:
An early crush on Sandy Alomar Jr. led Ashley Woods to root for the Cleveland Indians in grade school. She's now come to her senses and embraced her hometown Tigs. Also, Jim Leyland, I love you.
We may also be hearing from our friends at HuffPost San Francisco (as well as assorted other Giants fans in the HuffPost family). If you want your own voice be heard as the night goes along then tweet @HuffPostSports.