Pagan, Scutaro provide solid opening act for Giants

• Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro played key roles in the Giants' Game 1 win
• Pagan bounced a ball off the thrd-base bag for a two-out double in the third
• Scutaro then capped an eight-pitch at-bat with an RBI single, ahead of a Sandoval home run

SAN FRANCISCO -- Pablo Sandoval was the featured performer in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night.

However, two of his Giants teammates, Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro, were a solid opening act as San Francisco rode Sandoval's World Series record-tying three home runs to a 8-3 victory against the Detroit Tigers at AT&T Park.

Sandoval hit solo homers in the first and fifth innings and a two-run shot in the third inning. The two-run blast capped a three-run rally that pushed the Giants' lead to 4-0 after Pagan and Scutaro kept the inning alive with two-out hits off Tigers ace Justin Verlander.

Pagan had some luck on his side when he hit a double. The ball hit the third-base bag and bounced into short left field.

Scutaro then capped an eight-pitch plate appearance by lining a single up the middle that scored Pagan and made it 2-0. Up came Sandoval, and he lined a home run over the left-field fence to put the Giants ahead 4-0 and the deficit was too much for the Tigers to overcome.

"There's nothing wrong with being a little lucky sometimes," Pagan said. "At this time of the year, you take whatever you can get. I don't it it's a good bounce, an error by the other team or whatever.

"I saw the ball get by (third baseman Miguel) Cabrera, and I ran as hard as I could to get to second. I wanted to get a rally started."

Verlander kept throwing Scutaro curveballs, but Scutaro finally found a pitch to his liking.

"I knew he was going to come at me with breaking stuff," Scutaro said. "In the first inning, he kept throwing breaking balls in fastball counts. I knew to be ready."

Pagan is the Giants' leadoff hitter, and Scutaro bats second. They each went 2-for-4 in Game 1, and they each scored two runs. Scutaro added two RBI.

They have formed an effective 1-2 combination at the top of the batting order, particularly after left fielder Melky Cabrera was suspended on Aug. 15 for 50 games by Major League Baseball for a positive test for too high of level of testosterone, which effectively ended his season.

Cabrera was hitting a National League-leading .346, but Pagan and Scutaro picked up the slack and helped the Giants win the NL West title by eight games over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Pagan hit .314 in 43 games following the suspension, and Scutaro, who was acquired from Colorado in a July 28 trade, batted .376 in 43 games.

Pagan went a combined 13-for-43 (.304) in the Giants' victories against Cincinnati in the National League Division Series and St. Louis in the NL Championship Series. Scutaro, meanwhile, was the MVP of the NLCS for his 14-for-28 performance in seven games after a rough NLDS in which he was just 3-for-20.

Pagan and Scutaro are not favorites of the sabermetric crowd as neither is a high on-base percentage type. Pagan hit .288 in the regular season but his OBP was just .338 while Scutaro's .348 OBP was fueled by a .308 batting average.

However, the Giants value hitters who make contact, especially hard contact.

Though Pagan struck out 97 times in 659 plate appearances in the regular season, he also had 61 extra-base hits -- 38 doubles, an NL-leading 15 triples and eight homers.

Scutaro struck out just 49 times in 683 trips to the plate.