Game 1 of the World Series had all the feel and all the hype of NLCS Game 1, except now one of the greatest potential postseason pitchers (Roy Halladay) had been replaced by the third greatest postseason pitcher of all time in Cliff Lee, who had posted a 7-0 record with a 1.25 ERA, third to only Sandy Koufax and Christy Mathewson.
Tim Lincecum had similarly shown that he was no postseason slouch, posting a 2-1 record with a 1.98 ERA. His opener was an electric 14 K complete game two-hit shutout.
Critics, pundits, fans and media everywhere were calling for a pitcher’s duel for the ages. As put slightly sarcastically by ESPN, it was going to be a 7-13 minute game, and they would flip a coin at the end of 48 innings.
If you gave everyone an over-under on three total runs scored, there would have been a fair amount of people calling for three, and everyone would have called the under on five.
However, there is not a person on the planet that called for a total of 18 runs, of which 11 would be given up by the starting pitching of Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum. Then the two most effective bullpens in the postseason went on to give up a total of seven runs in 6 2/3 innings.
So, WHAT HAPPENED? Let’s find out.