How where the Giants going to slow down the high-powered hitters of the Detroit Tigers pundits wondered. How could they stop the best hitter in the game, Miguel Caberra, the first man to win the Batting triple crown in forty-five years, from ruining their World Series dreams . The simple answer pitching, pitching and more pitching.
We are two games into the 2012 World Series and already a dominant theme has emerged in the Series. San Francisco’s starting pitching has been nothing short of exceptional. Madison Bumgarner following in the footsteps of teammate Barry Zito, tossed seven scoreless innings while striking out eight Tigers on route to the 2-0 victory.Bumgarner came into the game on the back of two poor starts in a row, but like so many of his teammates the starting pitcher rediscovered his form when it mattered most to help his team extend their series lead to 2-0.
The dominance of the starting staff has trickled down to San Francisco bullpen too it seems. The bullpen has been lights out. In the two games played so far the San Francisco bullpen has not giving up a run. That is in stark contrast to the Detroit Tigers. Game 2 starter Doug Fister gave his team a chance to win the game, by not allowing the Giants to score for six innings. However, his teammates in the bullpen could not do the same, giving up the two decisive runs in the seventh and eight innings.
The Tigers are a frustrated team right now. Not used to struggling so badly as a team at the plate they are trying to force the issue. This only compounds the problem with hitters swinging for home runs at pitch a country mile out of the strike zone and been too aggressive on the base paths. The Tigers lack of patience came back to hut them in a big way in the second inning.
Despite Bumgarner’s brilliance the Tigers had a chance to take an early lead. With Prince Fielder standing on first base, Delmon Young hit a line drive into the outfield gap. Fielder who can only be generously described as big-boned, chugged around the bases in the same manner a out of shape person runs after a bus which has just pulling away from their stop, with great effort and little speed. Instead of holding up Fielder at third base to give his team men at second and third, Tigers third base coach, Gene Lamont, sent Fielder home. The Giants executed the relay from the outfield to home plate perfectly and easily cut down Fielder at the Plate to Keep it 0-0. After that base running miscues the Tigers only manged three more hits off Bumgarner and failed to threaten again.
It was a costly error by Lamont,one compounded by the dominance of the Giants pitching staff in the aftermath.The Tigers have failed to lead at any point in this series so far. With the Way the Giants as a collective are pitching you feel that if Detroit are to stand any chance to get back into this series they must be the team that strike first. Although they way their Bullpen is pitching at the moment that might not even be enough.
