I wish I was cocky enough to claim I knew our Giants would be heading into Detroit two games up on the Tigers.
Well well well, Giants Nation.
I wish I was psychic or cocky enough to claim I knew our San Francisco Giants would be heading into Detroit two games up on the Tigers.
But heck, none of you knew we were going to do major work on the Tigres either.
Not only has the Orange & Black been an offensive bulldozer against their starting pitchers — I’m pretty sure Justin Verlander was just as surprised as everyone else with the outcome of Game 1 — but our defense went so far as to keep the Tigres scoreless in Game 2.
P.S. Raise your hand if you wanted to throw a Prince Fielder in a time out for his cry-baby act following his out at home plate.
So now that we’ve dominated at home — and that Angel Pagan scored the country free tacos — it’s time to keep the momentum going. Pull up that stool, order yourself an Oktoberfest brew and let’s look at what the Gigantes need to do more of in Games 3 and 4:
Keep on the Starters: We talked earlier in the week about getting to Detroit’s starting pitchers early because their bullpen isn’t too solid.
Our starters and bullpen, on the other hand, have been stellar. And we have had offense on our side to boot. It has definitely been in our favor that we were able to hit both Verlander and Fister and make Jim Leyland scramble to put more pitchers on the mound.
We have two tough starters to face; facing Scherzer isn’t going to be a cake walk. So SF’s bats need to stay hot. We need Scutaro to keep hitting those line drives, and Pence needs to keep racking up the RBIs.
And if Pablo wants to hit a couple more HRs, that would be delightful too.
Our defense vs. whatever they have out there: Gregor Blanco’s several seal-like sliding catches. Brandon Crawford’s quick feet and high jumps.
Their defense isn’t doing any of that. Just sayin’.
Get used to Game 2’s style: As cool as it was to have that string of three or four games when the Giants scored a crazy number of runs, we know that small-ball is more our style.
Expect the next few games to follow the same pattern as Thursday’s game: Low score, big pitchers’ duels, with different guys contributing every night.
And hopefully, in the same style as Game 2, the Giants will also be winning.
I want to thank all of you who have joined “You Know You Bleed Orange & Black When. . .” and shared all your crazy Kung Fu Panda memes. And for any of you who haven’t joined yet, you most definitely should.
Talk to all of you after Game 4.
Peace, Love and Motor-City-Madness.
