In something of a controversial move, Ron Washington opted to start Vladimir Guerrero in right field over David Murphy in Game 1. Though Murphy is left-handed and the better defender of the two, Washington wanted to find room for his cleanup hitter somewhere in the lineup, so he did what he did.
Vladimir Guerrero Struggles In World Series Game 1 Loss
It looked like his call would pay off in the early going, when Guerrero came up with two runners on in the first and drove one of them home with an infield single off of Tim Lincecum's body. That early in the series, Guerrero was already making his presence known.
Unfortunately, that would be Guerrero’s lone highlight, and the rest of his evening was miserable, both at the plate and in the field. At the plate, Guerrero made outs in his next three at bats.
And in the field, he was every bit the circus so many Rangers fans feared he would be. His lack of mobility allowed the Giants to take a few extra bases, and in the eighth, he made a two-base error when he couldn't handle a bounce on a single, and he made another error when he bobbled a Freddy Sanchez grounder down the right field line. Though he was understandably rusty, he also looked well out of place.
We’ll see what Washington decides to do as we look ahead to Game 2. Guerrero didn’t cost the Rangers a win, but he looked very bad, and he didn’t do enough with the stick to make himself an obvious start.
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