Marco Scutaro comes through again for the Giants _ who else?
The NLCS MVP lined a 3-1 pitch from Phil Coke into center field for a go-ahead single in the top of the 10th inning, giving San Francisco a 4-3 lead.
Ryan Theriot scores from second with a slide after looping a leadoff single to right-center and moving up on Brandon Crawford’s sacrifice bunt.
The Giants are three outs from a four-game sweep and their second World Series championship in three years. Sergio Romo in to try to close it out for Giants. Top of the order due up for Detroit.
Scutaro entered that at-bat hitting .714 with runners in scoring position this postseason.
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Ouch!
Omar Infante was hit on the left hand by Santiago Casilla’s two-out pitch in the ninth inning. You could hear the impact on television, too. Crack!
Infante, grimacing in pain, came out of the game for a pinch-runner. Detroit can only hope the second baseman’s hand isn’t broken.
Gerald Laird grounded into a force play and Game 4 of the World Series is headed to extra innings tied 3-all.
Danny Worth ran for Infante and stayed in the game at second base.
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The Tigers tweeted that they are the third team to strike out at least 12 batters in consecutive World Series games, joining the 1973 New York Mets and 1929 Philadelphia Athletics.
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The battle of the bullpens should favor the Giants, who have more depth out there and more left-handers to match up with.
Tigers lefty Phil Coke strikes out the side and we head to the bottom of the ninth tied at 3. Andy Dirks due up for Detroit.
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By the way, the home runs by Miguel Cabrera and Buster Posey tonight marked the first time both reigning batting champions went deep in the same World Series game, according to STATS LLC.
It’s only the fourth time the two batting champs have faced each other in the Series, STATS said. The previous occasion was 1954: Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Bobby Avila of the Cleveland Indians.
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Big-time pitching by Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt.
After walking pinch-hitter Avisail Garcia to open the eighth inning, Affeldt struck out Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young in succession.
Middle of the Detroit lineup, and all three go down swinging. Two of them right-handed against the left-handed Affeldt, too.
Score still tied at 3 heading to the ninth inning.
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Tigers starter Max Scherzer was lifted with one out in the top of the seventh. With a runner on second, rookie Drew Smyly retired Brandon Crawford on a flyball and Octavio Dotel got Angel Pagan on a grounder to second to keep the score tied.
Giants starter Matt Cain works a 1-2-3 seventh and we’re headed to the eighth tied at 3.
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FOX just showed Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford in the stands, wearing a ski cap and bundled up just like everyone else.
A few hours earlier, Stafford led the Lions to a 28-24 victory at home over the Seattle Seahawks. Play-by-play man Joe Buck points out, for the benefit of fantasy football owners, that Stafford had three touchdown passes (though he didn’t to mention that Stafford also ran for a score).
Buck says one thing he knows is that broadcast partner Tim McCarver does not have a fantasy team.
“No, I do not,” McCarver says proudly. “I live in real time, not fantasy, pal.”
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Delmon Young hits an opposite-field homer to right for Detroit, tying the score at 3 in the bottom of the sixth.
Giants starter Matt Cain appeared to be in great shape after striking out Miguel Cabrera and getting Prince Fielder on a popup to begin the inning. Young, however, sent a spinning slider into the strong wind and there was little doubt it would clear the fence.
Andy Dirks singled and Jhonny Peralta nearly put Detroit up by two with a long drive to left, but Gregor Blanco caught it just in front of the wall.
Fielder is 1 for 13 in the Series.
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Buster Posey’s two-run homer in the top of the sixth off Max Scherzer puts the Giants back in front, 3-2.
Marco Scutaro led off with an infield single and, one out later, Posey reached out and pulled a changeup down the left-field line for his third home run of the postseason.
Posey was actually out in front on a changeup, but he got the barrel of the bat to the ball and lofted it down the line.
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Brandon Crawford just made another terrific play at shortstop, barehanding a grounder that deflected off Giants starter Matt Cain and making an accurate, off-balance throw to get speedy rookie Quintin Berry at first.
That prevented Miguel Cabrera from coming to the plate with two runners on in the fifth. Instead, he’ll lead off the sixth.
Tigers lead 2-1. Both starting pitchers still in the game.
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Tigers still lead 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth and Omar Infante leads off with a broken-bat single.
Very light rain falling at Comerica Park.
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The Tigers just got some help from the elements _ perhaps their first break of the entire Series.
A strong gust of wind blowing out to right field carried Miguel Cabrera’s two-out drive into the seats for a two-run homer in the third inning.
Detroit is up 2-1, its first lead in the Series and the first time the Giants have trailed in 57 innings since Game 4 of the NLCS against St. Louis.
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Save for the back-to-back extra-base hits that gave the Giants their lead, Tigers starter Max Scherzer looks pretty sharp on nine days’ rest.
He’s using his changeup and he got a big out when cleanup hitter Buster Posey flied out with runners at the corners to end the top of the third inning.
There was talk that Scherzer was dealing with a sore shoulder down the stretch, but he’s pitched well in the postseason. This is only his third start, and he was held to a total of 11 innings during the first two. But he racked up 18 strikeouts in those two games and compiled a 0.82 ERA.
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Strong defense has been a huge part of the Giants’ success in this Series so far. First baseman Brandon Belt made an excellent pick when third baseman Pablo Sandoval short-hopped a throw in the third.
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Sandoval singled in the third for his 24th hit this postseason, one shy of the record for a single postseason held by Marquis Grissom (1995), Darin Erstad (2002) and David Freese (2011).
If the Giants finish off the sweep tonight, Sandoval is a sure-fire bet to win World Series MVP.
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Detroit wastes a leadoff single in the bottom of the second by Delmon Young, one of the few Tigers hitters pulling his weight so far.
Prince Fielder is 1 for 12 in the Series.
FOX reporter Erin Andrews _ and most of the fans around her _ are bundled up in the stands.
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San Francisco has taken the lead in the second inning for the second consecutive night.
Hunter Pence hit a ground-rule double to left-center with one out and Brandon Belt followed with a triple deep into the right-field corner.
Knowing how much trouble his team has had scoring runs, Tigers manager Jim Leyland brought the infield in and that decision saved a run when Gregor Blanco grounded out to second base. Belt held at third.
Ryan Theriot flied out to end the inning. Giants 1, Tigers 0.
Theriot is the DH for the first time in his career.
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The temperature at first pitch was 44 degrees, with a stiff wind making it feel even colder.
Once again, runs could be hard to come by.
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Believe it or not, the World Series could end tonight.
Seems as though it just started.
San Francisco ace Matt Cain will be on the mound at chilly Comerica Park as the Giants go for a four-game sweep of Detroit and their second championship in three years. First pitch coming up at 8:15 p.m. EDT.
Cain has already pitched a pair of clinchers in this postseason, earning the win in Game 5 of the division series against Cincinnati and Game 7 of the NLCS against St. Louis. A victory tonight would mark the perfect finish for Cain _ who pitched a perfect game in June against Houston.
Max Scherzer gets the ball for the slumping Tigers, who are hitting .165 in the Series after getting shut out in each of the past two games.
The only major league team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the postseason was the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who rallied past the rival New York Yankees in the AL championship series.
Take nothing away from the Giants’ pitchers, who have certainly been sublime. But let’s be honest, unless Detroit can mount a major comeback, this Series will go down as a dud.
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