PHILADELPHIA – The plan all those many years ago for an October night in downtown Detroit was to start lefty Nate Robertson in Game 1 of the World Series. But that was before Yadier Molina homered to put the upstart Cardinals ahead in Queens, before Adam Wainwright cold-snapped a curveball that froze Shea Stadium, before Jim Leyland, no longer facing the New York Mets in the World Series, rewrote his Tigers rotation to send a rookie right-hander against the Cardinals.
If not for that, who knows when Justin Verlander’s quest for his first win in a World Series would have commenced.