The San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers went into game four of the World Series with the series being dominated by Giants pitching (or, depending on who you ask, dominated by the Tigers lack of hitting). The Giants sent ace Matt Cain to the mound—but during the postseason Cain was more serviceable than ace-like:
| W | L | IP | Hits | Runs | SO | BB | WHIP | ERA |
| 2 | 2 | 23 | 9 | 9 | 15 | 5 | 1.17 | 3.52 |
The Tigers pinned their fading championship hopes on the sore shoulder of 27-year-old righty Max Scherzer. Scherzer went 16-7 with a 3.74 ERA and 231 strike outs during the regular season. During the postseason he was 0-1 with an 0.82 ERA.
But it was San Francisco who struck first. In the top of second, Hunter Pence hit a ground rule double against Max Scherzer and Brandon Belt followed with a triple to give the Giants a 1-0 lead. Neither hit was cheap. The Giants simply teed off on Scherzer.Things could have been worse as the Giants had a runner on third with only one out. But Scherzer got Gregor Blanco to ground out and got Ryan Theriot to line out to end the inning.
Early on the Tigers had to rely on the one thing that had failed them all series: their bats. Even a 1-0 seemed like an insurmountable mountain early on in game four.
Twitterverse reminded us of the Tigers futility after they only managed one hit in the bottom of the second:
Ray Ratto of CSN tweeted:
Another extraordinary Tiger rally. One runner, stranded at first.
— Ray Ratto (@RattoCSN) October 29, 2012
But the Tigers finally broke the ice in the third when triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run shot to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. The home run also broke a the Giants streak of 56 consecutive innings without trailing (ESPN Twitter Link)
After the home run, Baseball Jerks own Tom Laverty tweeted:
Insert Twilight Zone music. Tigers lead. 2-1 #WorldSeries #StopJoeBuck
— @BaseballJerks (@BaseballJerks) October 29, 2012
Scherzer rolled through five innings and seemed to be getting stronger until Buster Posey hit a two-run shot in the top of the sixth to give the Giants a 3-2 lead. With cold rain falling on Comerica it truly felt as if the Tiger’s 2012 MLB season was coming to an end.
Prince Fielder continued to struggle (0-4 with 2 strikeouts) but ALCS MVP Delmon Young hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the sixth.
The Giants threatened in the top of the sixth and Leyland pulled Scherzer for Drew Smyly. Scherzer’s final line: 6.1 IP, 3 runs, 7 hits, 8 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 home run. Smyly got Brandon Crawford to pop out. Octavio Dotel replaced Smyly and got Angel Pagan to ground out to end the inning.
Cain seemed to be getting stronger himself and rolled through the seventh inning as he Omar Infante to pop out, Gerald Laird to pop out, and struck out Austin Jackson. With a pitch count of 102 it would be his final inning. Cain’s final line: 7 IP, 3 runs, 5 hits, 5 strikeouts, 2 walks, 2 home runs.
From there it became a game of the bullpen—and San Francisco’s bullpen was just a little stronger.
Smyly, Dotel and Phil Coke combined for 3.2 innings one-relief for Detroit.
Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romos combined for 3 innings of shutout relief for San Francisco. The Tigers didn’t get a hit after the sixth inning.
In the top of the tenth Marco Scutaro drove in Ryan Theriot off of Coke to give San Francisco a 4-3 lead—a lead they would not relinquish.
In the bottom of the tenth Romo struck out the side—getting the triple crown winner looking. It was a fitting end for the World Series—the Tigers bats silent on their shoulders.
