World Series Game 3 Recap
Prior to tonight‘s game, Octavio Dotel stated the obvious. Asked about his team trailing the World Series two-games-to-none, the Tigers reliever said, “We need to win tonight.”
They didn’t win, and that puts them on the brink. With a 2-0 victory behind the pitching of Ryan Vogelsong, Tim Lincecum and Sergio Romo, the Giants are now one game away from the franchise’s seventh title. It would be the seventh time the Tigers have advanced to the World Series and fallen short.
Vogelsong’s performance wasn’t artistic, but it was historic. In 1937, the Yankees captured the first three games of the World Series with their starting pitchers earning wins while allowing one run or less. The Giants became the second team to turn the trick, with Barry Zito, Madison Bumgarner and Vogelsong doing the honors.
It isn’t like the Tigers didn’t have their chances. They threatened in the first inning, but Prince Fielder grounded into an inning-ending double play with two runners on. It has been a frustrating postseason for the well-compensated slugger. He has one hit in 10 World Series at bats after going just 4-for-17 in the ALCS and 4-for-21 in the ALDS.
In the third inning, rookie Quintin Berry grounded into a two-on, inning-ending double play. In the fifth inning, the Tigers loaded the bases only to have Berry strike out and Miguel Cabrera pop to shortstop. Cabrera has reached base in all 23 games he has played in a Detroit uniform, but in one of the key at bats of the Series he was bested by a pitcher who didn‘t have his best stuff The Giants right-hander allowed nine base runners in five-and-two-third innings. None scored.
“We had him on the ropes a few times,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland after the game. “We just couldn’t get the killer blow.”
The Giants offense did just enough. In the second inning, Gregor Blanco tripled in a run and proceeded to score on a bloop single by Brandon Crawford. Blanco is now 5-for-8 lifetime against Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez, including a pair of three-baggers.
“He just threw me a pitch to hit and I was able to do some damage with it,” said Blanco. “But to tell you the truth, this was just one game. Tomorrow, after 27 outs, if we win, then we’ll celebrate. Until that happens, we have to maintain our focus.”
Sanchez, who fanned eight over seven strong innings, showed plenty of focus in becoming just the third Venezuelan-born pitcher to start a World Series game [Freddy Garcia and Les Straker are the others]. He deserved a better fate, but his teammates have suddenly become as offensively-anemic as the Yankees were in the ALCS. The Tigers have now gone 18 innings without scoring and have crossed the plate in just two of the last 27.
The Giants, meanwhile, are on a roll. Bruce Bochy’s team has not only pitched shutouts in three of the last four games, they haven’t trailed in 54 innings. Barring a reversal of fortune, they’re poised to close out the Series. If the Tiger are to prevent that from happening, they have one choice.
“The key for us is to win tomorrow,” said Fielder. “And then the next day and the next day and the next day. We can’t lose.”
Three runs for the Tigers all coming in one game with back to back shutouts to follow. Pretty much sums up this series. Hitting like the local JV high school team will tend to lose you games.
I’d like to see some heat maps of balls and strikes above the belt because it looked to me like Vogelsong and the Giants had to overcome a fairly horsebleep strike zone. Vogey couldn’t get a strike above the belt while Sanchez was living at the letters and the ump kept ringing the Giants up on it.
Oh, and I’m wondering if Blanco took a bad route to that ball he caught off Peralta down in the corner in the 9′th inning?
http://goo.gl/jbEHY
Yes, the Giants got edge calls against them at the top against RHH, but for me that’s completely balanced out by extra lefty strikes outside to LHH and inside to RHH. That zone certainly doesn’t look egregious to me.
I agree but I really had the same feeling during the game though because of a few key called third strikes high in the zone, but these have been the type of umpires we have seen behind the plate so far in this series, all amiable to the high ball, or otherwise known as the rulebook strike zone.
My only gripe is that there seems to be no consensus on whether that should be the zone, or whether the “new” belt high strike zone is more appropriate. But really IMO the umpires so far in this series have been superb, it is surreal really.
Another two very close plays at first in today’s game and even with the HD and 1000 angles I didn’t see one that provided a clear answer, but to the best of my judgement he missed both calls. It would appear to me that Belt’s foot came off the bag on Fielder’s double play in the first and then in a strange twist of fate Fielder’s foot was to late back to the bag on Blanco’s grounder leading off the 7th. If these were missed calls they were the first ones in the series and hard to get mad about. Then again maybe I am going blind.
Every advantage the Tigers were supposed to have hasn’t been an advantage, and every advantage the Giants were supposed to have has been. The Tigers were supposed to have better starting pitching; it hasn’t been that bad, but it certainly hasn’t been better than the Giants’. The Giants were supposed to have better relief pitching, and they have. The Giants were supposed to be much better at defense than the Tigers, and they have been. The Tigers were supposed to hit for more power than the Giants, and they haven’t. The Giants were supposed to hit for better contact than the Tigers, and they have. The Giants were supposed to be better on the basepaths than the Tigers, and they have. It’s incredibly frustrating that our strengths have become weaknesses and our weaknesses have remained weak.
I would definitely argue that the starting pitching for the Tigers has been better. Results do not equate to quality all the time and definitely not in this case. Barry Zito and MadBum gave them every opportunity to light them up. Vogelsong was pretty good but really not better than Sanchez. The Giants offense has executed and the Tigers has not, that’s the series.
You can’t separate pitching from defense. The Giants have been better at preventing runs.
You actually can separate pitching from defense, people do it all the time, especially here. You can also separate pitching quality from random fluctuation and/or luck.
People here think they do it all the time, and you can in theory, but on the field the two are inseparable.
In the last 6 games the Giants have scored 32 runs while allowing 4. Total. They’ve pitched a shutout in 4 of those games. Its unbelievable.
yay, doublepost!
In their last 6 games the Giants have scored 32 runs while allowing 4. Total. They’ve pitched a shutout in 4 of those games. Its unbelievable.
It seems to me that this series should be the poster child for a big part of Fangraphs’ raison d’etre which is promoting defensive metrics. If this series is not a shining example of defensive metrics in action, then I don’t think we’re ever going to see it.
The Giants may provide support that defense is still being underrated as it relates to WAR. Perhaps the challenge of properly evaluating performance by fielders has caused statisticians to undervalue defense. It’s almost like concluding that if we can’t measure it, then it can’t have much meaning.
SSS. Three games or really the playoffs period provide very little evidence of anything.
That’s the stock answer I expected from someone. You might want to go look up Team UZR’s for the season and get back to me on that.
So because they had a good UZR during the season that means that defense is the reason that they have prevented runs in these particular three games.
That is a extremely big logical fallacy you have there.
All I’m saying is this is an example of what many people are observing on the field, namely that the Giants have made a lot more good defensive plays and a lot fewer bad ones than the Tigers, correlating with a large sample of defensive stats.
I don’t think an entire 162-game season plus the postseason constitutes a small sample size. And Gregor Blanco is a defensive upgrade to Melky Cabrera, whether it be for one game or an entire season.
27th ranked organization at best.
I hate to say this as a Giants fan but I have to be honest: this series to me feels less about the Giants’ pitching really being this good than about the Tigers just really putting in a miserable offensive performance. I almost wish the Tigers would win today so the Giants could come back and rock Verlander again tomorrow, just to have something to really make this series worth remembering.
Almost. I’m still a Giants fan first, which means a win in any form — including exactly like the last 2 — would suit me much better. I guess I’m just acknowledging that the Tigers choosing the World Series of all times to go into a team-wide slump has kinda made this a boring series. Is that just me or does anyone else feel like one team just hasn’t shown up so far?
Giants: good pitching and good defense have been part of their MO all season and for several seasons now.
Tigers: One of the worse defensive teams in baseball all season.
Tigers rely on the HR. Giants pitchers have historically been good at limiting the longball. Cold weather is probably contributing to that.
There is probably some element of the Tigers going into a teamwide slump, but there are also plenty of established performance patterns favoring the Giants that are playing out exactly the way they should.
Funny how the same thing happened to the Phillies and Rangers in 2010….
At what point does coincidental team slumps turn into dominate pitching performances?
This is historic type of pitching performance and it wasn’t a Livan Hernandez type of 1 off. They did the same thing in 2010 to a NL offense juggernaut followed by an AL team of mashers. They did have the advantage of dumping Sanchez and picking up Vogelsong
The Giants have already made this postseason epic by their ridiculous comebacks against the Reds and the Cards, no need to prove anything else here, and honestly I don’t care how cold the Tiger’s lineup might or might not be, they are being shut out. People can try and dice it any way they like, but I can remember plenty of times that this current crop of Giants pitching has made a team “go cold”.
A win is a win is a win. Who cares if the other team went cold. The Tigers didn’t care when the Yankees didn’t show up the previous series why should the Giants care now. And to answer, of course this is the Tigers not showing up on offense. Great pitching might yield you 3 ER or so per game against on average. However, a team full of Randy Johnson’s would still need the other team to go cold as ice in order to only give up 3 runs in 3 games with two shut outs. And I don’t think any self respecting Giants fan is going to come on here and claim Zito, current MadBum and Vogelsong went Randy Johnson on the Tigers.