Tigers Have Ace Justin Verlander, but Giants Are Resilient SAN FRANCISCO - When Justin Verlander throws his first pitch on Wednesday, in Game 1 of the World Series, you wonder if he will somehow rev his fastball to 150 miles an hour. Such is the rollicking atmosphere that will greet Verlander, the ace of the Detroit Tigers, who thrives on adrenaline and will get a major dose here. The San Francisco Giants are back in the World Series, meaning baseball's best party will rage at least two more nights. The Giants snuffed the reigning champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-0, to win Game 7 of the National League Championship Series at AT&T Park on Monday. They shook orange towels, jammed to classic rock, scarfed garlic fries and reveled in another shot at glory. Verlander and the Tigers, who have not won a title since 1984, will probably be the favorites. They have already dashed the dreams of one Bay Area team - the Oakland Athletics - and eviscerated the Yankees in a four-game sweep. But these Giants are not like those teams. Oakland hitters led the majors in strikeouts and whiffed 50 times in five games against Detroit. The Yankees spent the American League Championship Series flailing at pitches far off the plate, averaging nine strikeouts per game. The Giants, meanwhile, have a pesky habit of putting the bat on the ball, which could be especially important against a Tigers team not known for defense. Nothing good can come from a strikeout, and while making contact sometimes hurts - why did the Cardinals let Lance Lynn swing away in Game 5, when he tapped into a killer double play? - the Giants understand that when you hit the ball, you have a chance. Their offense ranked 26th in the majors in strikeouts. Little things added up in Game 7. In the first inning, Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse double-clutched a weak dribbler, as third baseman David Freese had done in Game 6, allowing a run to score. In the second, a groundout by Brandon Crawford moved a runner to second, and pitcher Matt Cain scored him with a two-out single. A deluge followed in the third, when five runs scored on a series of zigzag hits and bad infield decisions. A rout was on, without anything close to a home run. The Giants, of course, prefer the unconventional. They glided to the 2010 World Series on the bat of Cody Ross, an August waiver claim who ripped two home runs in a playoff game against Roy Halladay, who had just pitched a no-hitter. Then the Giants bounced the Texas Rangers in five games, using stingy young pitching and a clutch home run from Edgar Renteria, the last gasp of his career. These Giants have new offensive stars - notably Marco Scutaro, who ripped 14 hits in the series - and found their pitching just in time. Barry Zito, Ryan Vogelsong and Cain stifled the Cardinals in Games 5, 6 and 7, dominating so thoroughly that each even drove in a run. Mostly, though, the team embodies a comeback spirit their fans adore. Down two games to none in the division series, the Giants roared back with three wins in Cincinnati to advance. Down three games to one in this N.L.C.S., they prevailed again. "The team has captured people's imagination - and people call them cockroaches - because every time this team has been beaten down, it's popped back up," Larry Baer, the Giants" chief executive, said before Game 7. And I'm talking lots of ways. Beaten down by Brian Wilson being out for the season. Beaten down by Aubrey Huff not being the starting first baseman, Freddy Sanchez not playing, Melky Cabrera off the field, the prospects of a blockbuster Dodger trade, down 2-0 and having to win three in a row in Cincinnati, down 3-1 here. "There's sort of this anything-can-happen, never-say-die relentlessness that is just a quality of life that people like," Baer said. "It says, "You cannot defeat me." And the fans respond to that. The fans are going to yell their hearts out, because that is a quality that just doesn't come around too often in sports. The Giants became only the second team to win three consecutive elimination games twice in the same postseason. Steve Balboni, a Giants scout, was the first baseman for the other team to do it, the 1985 Kansas City Royals. After Game 4 in St. Louis, Balboni said pitching would make the difference, and that each win by the trailing team would put more pressure on the team with the lead. He was right on both counts, it seems, and also on a third. "To me, it boils down to each game you need to play well," Balboni said. You can't really make mistakes. The two teams that you play are both hot. If you give them anything, they're going to take it. The Giants let the Cardinals make the big mistakes, which extended beyond the field. When Lohse left in the third inning, with the bases loaded and no outs, trailing by two, the situation screamed for the team's best power pitcher. Yet Mike Matheny, the Cardinals" rookie manager, used his long reliever, Joe Kelly, instead of Trevor Rosenthal. By the time Rosenthal entered the game - in the fifth inning, when he struck out the side - the Cardinals were down by seven and the most important moment of the game was long gone. The Cardinals had missed it, the Giants had seized it, and now they welcome Verlander to their mosh pit by the bay. "Going through what we did, winning three in a row, and coming back in this series, I can't explain how much joy I feel," Angel Pagan said. It's really just magical.