The San Francisco Giants will honor five players who were instrumental in a stretch of three championships in five seasons in the 2010s before the team faces one of the teams it beat in a World Series, the Detroit Tigers, in the continuation of an interleague set on Saturday.
Catcher Buster Posey and infielders Brandon Belt, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford and Pablo Sandoval are expected to be on hand when replicas of their jerseys are unveiled on the Giants’ Wall of Fame inside Oracle Park before Saturday’s game.
Posey, Belt, Crawford and Sandoval combined for 16 hits when the Giants swept the Tigers 4-0 in the 2012 World Series. Sandoval earned Series MVP honors after launching three home runs — two off Tigers ace Justin Verlander — in Game 1.
Verlander, who pitched last season for the Giants, has rejoined the Tigers for his announced last of 21 seasons. He will be in the visitors’ dugout during the ceremony.
The Giants also beat the Texas Rangers in 2010 and Kansas City Royals in 2014 in the World Series.
The current Giants helped raise the spirits of their fans on the night before the ceremony, getting home runs from Rafael Devers and Willy Adames in a 5-2 home triumph over the playoff-contending Tigers.
“It was a good team win,” Giants manager Tony Vitello told reporters afterward. “It wasn’t pretty, and yet it was a beautiful game. The guys executed, played good (defense) overall. It wasn’t a flawless game, but it was a really good team effort.”
While the Giants are well out of contention in the National League postseason chase, the Tigers took a step backward in their pursuit of an American League wild-card berth, falling two games out of the third and final spot, currently held by the Rangers.
Saturday’s rematch will provide another chance to keep pace or make up ground, but it could also be an important game in terms of the Tigers’ long-term pitching plans with Jackson Jobe scheduled to make his season debut.
The right-hander hasn’t pitched in the majors since May of last season, when he underwent Tommy John surgery.
Jobe steps into a rotation that has lost mainstays Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize recently to trades and awaits a possible return of Verlander (60-day injured list) before season’s end.
Of Jobe, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said: “Will be nice to get him back. Controlling his emotions will be No. 1, and the excitement that comes with it. He’s a good pitcher. He’s worked really hard to make this recovery possible as fast as possible, and also as safely as possible. He was never lost — or forgotten. (It was) just a matter of time until we were going to be able to reinsert him.”
The third-year major-leaguer has faced the Giants once previously, that outing coming in his most recent big-league start, a 4-3 home win last season in a game in which he was roughed up for seven hits and three runs in 4 2/3 innings. He did not get a decision.
The Giants are expected to counter on Saturday with right-hander Landen Roupp (7-10, 4.34 ERA), who has faced the Tigers twice — a relief effort in 2024 and a start at Detroit last May. He’s gone 0-1 with a 1.50 ERA in those outings.
–Field Level Media
