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Giants and Tigers Game 2: A Lonely Fister in San Francisco
It was a rough evening for Tigers starter Doug Fister in the second game of the World Series in San Francisco. The Giants won 2-0 in the pitchers' duel to take a 2-0 lead in the series as it heads to Detroit for three games.
When Fister left the game in the seventh inning, he just gave up a single to Giants right fielder Hunter Pence. Pence, the awkward player he is, awkwardly reached out and barely got a piece of the slider into left field.
With that being Fister's 114th pitch, Tigers manager Jim Leyland came into the game and decided to go to the bullpen that has been a rollercoaster throughout the postseason.
Drew Smyly loaded the bases, and a double play by Brandon Crawford scored Pence giving the Giants the 1-0 lead and Fister the loss.
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As bad as that was, it could have been a lot worse for Fister.
With two outs and Buster Posey on first base in the second inning, Fister threw a 79 mph changeup to Gregor Blanco that came right at him. The ball bounced off the back of Fister's head and ended up in center field for a single for Blanco.
Automatically thoughts turned to Oakland Athletics pitcher Brandon McCarthy who also took a liner in the back of the head by Angels infielder Erick Aybar.
McCarthy wound up with a fractured skull and having to undergo emergency surgery so the fragment didn't sever an artery. For Fister he answered several questions correctly, made a couple of warmup pitches and went on with the game. I guess there is a difference between a 91 mph fastball and a 79 mph changeup.
With the abuse he took, it might have helped if his teammates helped him out on the basepaths. It was bad enough that Omar Infante got picked off with two outs and Delmon Young at the plate in the fourth inning.
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But after Prince Fielder was hit by a pitch from Giants starter Madison Bumgarner, Delmon Young hit a ground ball to the left field corner. The ball took a funny bounce off of the wall that eluded left fielder Gregor Blanco, and that was when Tigers third base coach Gene Lamont decided to send the listed-as-275-pound Fielder home.
Blanco relayed the ball to second baseman Marco Scutaro who made a perfect throw to catcher Buster Posey to tag Fielder on his left asscheek to prevent the run from scoring. With Young on second base with the double, the Tigers would have had runners on second and third with Jhonny Peralta who is batting .333 this postseason at the plate.
Instead with only Young on second base, Peralta popped out and Avisail Garcia struck out to keep the game scoreless.
The last time we saw Bumgarner, he was giving up six runs in 3 2/3 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series. His ERA this postseason was 11.25 coming into this game.
But after fixing a small mechanical problem (as he told Erin Andrews after the game), Bumgarner pitched seven innings of shutout ball finding that magic that made him so great in the Giants 2010 World Series run when he had a 2.18 ERA.
The Mad Bum outpitched the Fister.
(sorryican'thelpmyself)
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Coming into the series, everyone knew the Tigers bullpen paled in comparison to the Giants bullpen. The best way to neutralize this is for the Tiger bats to light up the Giants starters.
The Tigers were helpless against the two biggest question marks in the Giants rotation with Barry Zito and Madison Bumgarner. Now they have to face Ryan Vogelsong and Matt Cain both of whom are nearly lights out.
The good news for the Tigers is that they are headed home where they haven't lost a game yet in this postseason. So there is that. It will be Ryan Vogelsong for the Giants against Anibal Sanchez on Saturday. Of course they're predicting a high of 48 degrees and rainy weather for Detroit on Saturday.
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