San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy has released his team's lineup for Game 1 of the 2012 World Series against the Detroit Tigers (* indicates lefthanded hitter, # indicates switch-hitter):
1. Angel Pagan#, CF
2. Marco Scutaro, 2B
3. Pablo Sandoval#, 3B
4. Buster Posey, C
5. Hunter Pence, RF
6. Brandon Belt*, 1B
7. Gregor Blanco*, LF
8. Brandon Crawford*, SS
9. Barry Zito*, P
This is, of course, the lineup that's gotten the Giants this far, so you'd expect Bochy to stick with it. Tigers starter Justin Verlander last faced the Giants June 16, 2008 in San Francisco. That boxscore is largely irrelevant to this game because none of the eight position players from that day is a Giant now; it's mostly for amusement value. Meanwhile, players on the Giants' 2012 postseason roster are hitting .226 (12-for-53, a fairly small sample size) against Verlander; the player who's faced him most is Scutaro, who is 5-for-23 against him.