Giants halfway to World Series title

SAN FRANCISCO—Long ball one night, a Giant dose of small ball the next.
Two wins in two games and suddenly San Francisco doesn’t need to dig itself out of a post-season hole for a change.

Madison Bumgarner shut down the Detroit Tigers for seven innings, then the Giants took advantage of a bunt that stayed fair to eke out the go-ahead run in a 2-0 win last night for a 2-0 edge in the World Series.
Gregor Blanco’s single trickled to a stop inches fair on the infield dirt, setting up Brandon Crawford’s run-scoring double-play grounder in the seventh.
Hunter Pence added a sacrifice fly in the eighth—and that was plenty for these masters of the October comeback.
“It definitely feels a whole lot better than having our backs against the wall,” Bumgarner said.
“But you can’t relax. We’ve got to keep pushing,” he stressed.
Game 3 will be tomorrow night in Detroit, and for once the Giants aren’t playing from behind. They overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat Cincinnati in the best-of-five division series and then escaped a 3-1 hole against St. Louis in the NLCS.
A day after Pablo Sandoval homered three times, the favoured Tigers wondered what other way they could lose.
Prince Fielder was thrown out at the plate by a hair and moments later, pitcher Doug Fister was struck squarely in the head by Blanco’s line drive—a ball hit so hard that it caromed into shallow centre-field.
“They asked me the typical concussion questions,” Fister noted.
“I’m not concerned. I have a minor bump,” he added.
The 6’8” Fister managed to stay on the mound—and even excelled. Bumgarner more than matched him, however, allowing just two hits before the San Francisco bullpen closed it out before another pulsating crowd.
Santiago Casilla pitched a perfect eighth before Sergio Romo worked the ninth for a save in the combined two-hitter, leaving Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and his team in a huge hole heading back to Comerica Park.
Anibal Sanchez will start for the Tigers against Ryan Vogelsong in Detroit.
“That’s the way baseball is. When things are going well, things are bouncing your way,” noted Giants’ second baseman Marco Scutaro.
“If things aren’t going well, you just keep battling and playing hard.
“No one is taking anything for granted,” he pledged.
Even so, several dozen members of the Giants’ family came onto the field at AT&T Park well after the final out to pose for pictures, wanting to savour what they hope is the Giants’ last home game of the year.
Blanco, meanwhile, was able to celebrate a single that rolled 45 feet, if that.
“I was joking with [coach] Roberto Kelly when I got to first base, ‘We practised that today,’” Blanco recalled.
“That was a perfect bunt.
“I wasn’t really trying to do that,” he admitted. “I think it was just meant to be and I’m thankful that I did it.”
The Tigers looked rusty at the plate—maybe still lost following a five-day layoff after an ALCS sweep of the N.Y. Yankees. Cabrera hopped up in frustration after Sandoval snared his line drive to third.
“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland said. “We got two hits tonight.
“I’m certainly not going to sit up here and rip my offence because last night [Wednesday] I thought we had some pretty good swings.
“Cabrera hit a bullet tonight,” he added.
Bumgarner had something to do with the Tigers’ troubles, too.
Bumped from the NLCS rotation after two poor post-season starts, he returned with a flourish.
The left-hander struck out eight and looked as sharp as he did in the 2010 World Series when, as a 21-year-old rookie, he stopped Texas in Game 4 on the way to a championship.
“Just able to make pitches,” Bumgarner said. “I hadn’t done a very good job of making pitches this post-season so far and this is a team that you’re not going to be able to afford to miss with.
“They hit some balls hard, but luckily we were in the right spot,” he noted.
Along with his bunt, Blanco might have hit the hardest ball of the game—the liner that nailed Fister in the second inning.
The ball struck the right side of his head and deflected on the fly to shallow centre-field.
Fister showed no visible effect from the blow—in fact, some in the crowd wondered whether the ball perhaps glanced off his glove because Fister stayed on his feet.
Only when fans saw replays did groans echo around the ballpark.
Leyland, pitching coach Jeff Jones, and a trainer went to the mound, and Fister insisted on staying in the game.
He walked the next batter to load the bases with two outs, but retired Bumgarner on a pop-up—starting a streak of 12-straight hitters set down by Fister.
“Well, if you’d have been out there, it was something to see,” Leyland recalled.
“Because the trainer was saying, ‘Where are you?’ ‘San Francisco.’ ‘What game is it?’ ‘Game No. 2.’
“I don’t want to make light of it, but it was kind of comical really because Doug was right on with everything,” Leyland added.
“But I was scared to death when it happened.”
Of the 52 teams to take a 2-0 lead in the World Series, 41 have gone on to win the title. That includes 14 of the last 15 teams with that advantage.
“I’m not sure, and I haven’t done any studies on it,” said Giants’ reliever Jeremy Affeldt.
“But statisically, it’s always better to be 2-0 than 1-1 or 0-2. I’m just guessing.”