The San Francisco Giants continued their winning ways, defeating the Detroit Tigers 2-0 in Game Two of the 2012 World Series at A,T& T Park Thursday night.
Pre-game activities were much more subdued for Game Two, which was fine with me! Of course, Fox made sure that one of their own took center stage, and on this night Glee’s Matthew Morrison sang the National Anthem. When you pay the money Fox pays for exclusive broadcasting rights to cover the World Series, it’s expected that they take full advantage of their investment, don’t you think?
Game Two turned out to be a pitching duel between the Tigers Doug Fister and Madison Bumgarner of the Giants. Pitching duels generally mean few pictures, and that was indeed the case this night.
The Tigers mounted a threat in the in the top of the second when Prince Fielder was hit by a Bumgarner pitch to start the inning. Delmon Young followed with a ringing double down into the left field corner. To my surprise, Tigers third base coach Gene Lamont waved the lumbering Fielder around third and sent him home, only to be tagged out by the Giants All-Star catcher, Buster Posey.
To Fielders credit, it was a bang-bang play, but to me it seemed like the Tigers were desperate to get a run on the board and put the pressure on the Giants early in Game Two, and it backfired.
The game remained scoreless until the seventh inning, when the Giants plated the first run of the ballgame on a double play ground out by Brandon Crawford. The key to the inning, however, was Gregor Blanco’s sacrifice bunt attempt which stalled inches from the foul line to load the bases, setting up Crawford’s run producing double play grounder.
My photo position for Game Two was in the near third base outside photo well, where I had a clear shot into the Giants dugout. I could have shot exclusively into the dugout for innings! Brian Wilson kept things lively all night, to say the least.
Even under the pressure of playing in a World Series, it’s great to see that the players find opportunities to have fun themselves.
With the Giants clinging on to a 2-0 lead, it was time for Sergio Romo to close it out, and that he did. Romo has been stellar in the closer roll during the postseason, always smiling and seemingly, from my brief experiences while working around him, a fun guy to boot! He seems to have successfully taken over for Brian Wilson not only as closer but as “Ambassador of Fun” for the Giants.
Fun, indeed, is what Giant fans must be feeling as the Series heads to Motown on Saturday night.
