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The Detroit Tigers wasted a brilliant pitching effort from Doug Fister on Thursday night as they dropped Game 2 of the World Series to the San Francisco Giants, 2-0. When the Detroit Tigers lost Game 1 with Justin Verlander on the mound, the sentiment from Tigers blog Bless You Boys was: it's disappointing, but don't panic. Now the Tigers are down two games to none in the biggest series of the season. Is it officially time to panic?
As noted in the game recap, in the history of the fall classic, 50 teams have taken a 2-0 lead in a best-of-7 series, and 40 of those teams went on to win the World Series. Madison Bumgarner pitched seven innings of two-hit ball as the San Francisco staff faced two batters above the minimum and shut out a Tigers team that was blanked just two times during the entire 162-game regular season.
Al Beaton created an irrational/rational fan dichotomy in his recap and explained the perspective from both sides, but at a time like this it only feels right to indulge the irrational impulses with the Tigers down 2-0 in the World Series:
The irrational fan in me says:
EVERYBODY PANIC! Where's the offense? Why leave a .322 hitter in Andy Dirks on the bench? WHY? This is all Justin Verlander's fault for losing the All-Star Game! This all Bud Selig's fault for making the All-Star Game count! This is FOX's fault, because Buck and McCarver suck! This is all Delmon Young's fault because he's Delmon Young! The useless windmill known as Gene Lamont never should never have sent Prince Fielder! If you can't beat Madison Freaking Bumgarner, you don't deserve to win a World Series!
Now the series shifts to Comerica Park for the first time with Game 3 at 8 p.m. ET (FOX) on Saturday, where Tigers pitcher Anibal Sanchez will start opposite Giants hurler Ryan Vogelsong. Do-or-die time has officially arrived.