James Shields vs. Buster Posey, Bumgarner vs. Cain, blah, blah, blah. We all know about the heavyweight bouts. I'm more stoked about the undercard, Nori Aoki vs. the Giants' infielders.
Game 5 of the NLCS will be remembered for the home runs. During a Giants-Royals World Series, defensive heroics may be more important. Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford has already had one such moment, when he snatched a sharp groundball that glanced off diving third baseman Pablo Sandoval's glove, and delivered a strike to second for a force out.
If a stellar play on a groundball is the difference maker for the Royals or the Giants, I reckon it's most likely to be off the bat of Aoki. He led baseball in groundball percentage over the last two seasons at a 61.1% clip. Over the last three seasons, he has 100 infield hits, more than any other player in baseball by a substantial margin. His groundballs are equally distributed between the left and right side of the infield.
Source: FanGraphs
But he's far more likely to get an infield hit to the left side based on the longer throw distance and his efficiency in getting out of the box. He will undoubtedly be peppering Sandoval and Crawford with jabs throughout the series.
These two men are well equipped to bob and weave. According to Fangraphs defensive WAR metric, dating back to 2013, Crawford has been the NL's 5th best shortstop and Sandoval the 5th best third baseman. They will be tested by Aoki.
Both sides have been training hard. Their hoods are on. The Vaseline is smeared. The march has begun, and the walkout music is playing. One thing is for sure, Aoki must and most certainly will throw the first punch.
