It took six innings for either team to score on Thursday night, and even then the run was scored on a Brandon Crawford bases loaded double play to give the San Francisco Giants a 1-0 lead. One run on a play that didn’t even earn a notch in the RBI category. But one run was all San Francisco needed as Detroit’s bats were quieter than a mouse fart all night. San Francisco would go on to win the game 2-0 and take a two games to zero lead in the World Series.
After the Tigers and Justin Verlander were beaten into submission Wednesday night, they placed their trust in the hands of Doug Fister. But before Fister could take the mound his counterpart, Madison Bumgarner, gave us a taste of what game two was going to be like.
Bumgarner made quick and easy work of Austin Jackson, Omar Infante and Miguel Cabrera to start the night. If you went to grab a beer you probably missed the first inning as Fister easily matched Bumgarner’s performance getting the Giants in order. It was a sign of things to come.
The top of the second inning will be remembered for Gene Lamont‘s decision to send Prince Fielder home on a Delmon Young double to left. Fielder was hit by a pitch and took first. Young followed with a double to left and Fielder barreled around third as Lamont wildly waved him home. Fielder was out. The play was close, but not all that close. It’s a play that will be debated in Detroit bars for days to come. If Lamont held him at third, the Tigers would have had runners at second and third with no outs. Instead, Detroit found themselves with a runner at second and one out. Jhonny Peralta popped out and Avisail Garcia struck out to end the inning. It was the last time Detroit would truly threaten to score for the rest of the game.
The bottom of the second was scary for a different reason. In a truly unbelievable World Series moment, Fister took a line drive to the head and the ball ricocheted off his skull like it was shot out of cannon. Remarkably, Fister did not even seemed dazed by the hit and remained in the game after a few warm up tosses. Fister would go on to load the bases, but escaped the inning unscathed.
Bumgarner continued to roll in the third and looked nothing like the pitcher who had allowed 10 earned runs in his prior 8 innings pitched. According to ESPN he, “corrected a mechanical issue in his delivery.” Whatever he did it worked as he struck out five through three innings.
By the seventh inning we had an official pitcher’s duel as the Tigers and Giants had combined for just six hits.
Fitster was ‘relieved’ by Drew Smyly in the bottom of the seventh after allowing a Hunter Pence base hit. Fister’s final line: six-plus IP, 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 114 pitches. Fister’s fine performance was marred by a shaky Detroit bullpen.
Smyly loaded the bases and San Francisco broke the ice on Crawford’s double play ball that scored Pence. Smyly and Octavio Dotel combined their futility in the eighth as San Francisco went on to take a 2-0 lead.
Santiago Casilla relieved Bumgarner to start the eighth and made quick work of the Tigers. Bumgarner’s final line on the night: 7 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, 86 innings pitched.
In the ninth, Photobombing Sergio Romo got Quintin Berry on a fly out, Jackson on a strike out and Infante on a pop out to end the game.
The Tigers will now look to Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer to right the ship at Comerica Park in Detroit. San Francisco will counter with Ryan Vogelsong and Matt Cain.
The next game is Oct. 27, 8 p.m. on FOX.
