Justin Verlander lost the battle of Cy Youngs to Barry Zito, and then Barry Zito yielded to yet another Cy Young out of the Giants’ bullpen, Tim Lincecum. Three pretty impressive pitchers, and that was just Game 1!
Tonight Doug (Not Dog) Fister is on the bump for the Tigers with his 1.35 2012 postseason ERA. For the Giants Madison Bumgarner and his 11.25 postseason ERA awaits the Tigers bats. I’m in favor of this series going more than 4 games, so I’ll be rooting for the Tigers to even the series tonight. But really, if the game is close into the 9th inning we’re all winners.
The Giants are running out the same lineup for Game 2 as they had yesterday, just swapping pitchers (duh!). The Tigers made one small adjustment with Gerald Laird handling the catching duties (likely looking for the platoon advantage from the right handed hitting Laird against Bumgarner).
| TIGERS |
@ |
GIANTS |
| Jackson, A, CF | Pagan, CF | |
| Infante, 2B | Scutaro, 2B | |
| Cabrera, Mi, 3B | Sandoval, P, 3B | |
| Fielder, 1B | Posey, C | |
| Young, D, LF | Pence, RF | |
| Peralta, Jh, SS | Belt, 1B | |
| Garcia, A, RF | Blanco, LF | |
| Laird, C | Crawford, SS | |
| _ Fister, P | _ Bumgarner, P |
The Giants have held serve by winning the first two games of the World Series in their own ballpark and now the two teams move on to Detroit for the next three games.
Game 2 highlight’s included watching Prince Fielder churning his way from second base, around third and sliding home just… not… quite… quick enough to beat Buster Posey’s tag, as well as Tiger pitcher Doug FIster taking a line drive off his head that hit hard enough to land out in centerfield. Yet Fister not only stayed in the game, but continued to pitch very effectively.
If the Tigers are going to make this series competitive, they’re going to need to figure out how to score some runs. It’s hard to believe that the same team that beat the holy crap out of the Yankees in four straight games in the ALCS can’t solve the Giants pitching so far. And arguably, San Francisco hasn’t even shown the Tigers their best pitching yet.
Of course, if this year’s postseason has taught us anything, it’s that no series is over until it’s over (ask the Cardinals about that). I’m not counting the Tigers out yet, but to call Saturday and Sunday “must win” games for Detroit is not much of an overstatement. – JC