Don't Give Up On October Baseball: Who To Root For as a Phillies Fan (PART 4 of 4)

The Fall Classic is upon us. In the last installment of this 4-part series, we selected the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants as the teams you should root for being a Phillies fans. To the great surprise of this writer, both teams actually did advance. So now, since we have reached the final 4-7 games of the 2012 Major League Baseball Season, we, as Phillies fans can look forward to re-signings and free agency pickups to put a dismal 2012 season behind us. First there is the matter of the World Series and the burning question you have all wanted answered. WHO DO WE ROOT FOR IN THE WORLD SERIES?

Aside from Justin Verlander already winning, the Detroit Tigers come off a 6-day lay-off, wheras the Giants are pushing forward as if yesterday was just an off-day. The Tigers and Giants haven’t met since June of 2011, and in that series Detroit won one behind Rick Porcello and lost two after Jose Valverde blew a save that would’ve seen Brad Penny earn a win (presumbably his last ML win) and Barry Zito incredibly held onto a 12 run lead. The Tigers are really hitting their stride in the postseason, going 7-2 thus far, while the Giants have won 6-straight elimination games after being down 2-0 in the NLDS and 3-1 in the NLCS. As for who’s hotter it’s tough to tell, but I’d have to lean Tigers.

 

Looking at it from the standpoint of who you root for as a Phillies fan, the Giants, who eliminated the Phillies from postseason play in 2010, are clearly the team you should root against. The Giants only have 3 position players left from that 2010 squad, however their pitching is just about the same. The Tigers haven’t played the Phillies since 2007 and won 2 out of 3 games back then. For anyone that could be considered a “Phillie killer” on either of these two teams, you’d have to look at the Giants pitching staff. For these reasons it definitely appears that THE DETROIT TIGERS are worthy of your rooting interests.