World Series Tips: Humbled Tigers to level the series

Can Detroit shock the AT&T faithful?

Detroit were surprisingly beaten by San Francisco in the first game of the World Series, but Richard Fletcher thinks the Tigers can pounce on the Giants tonight to make this one game apiece

Detroit Tigers @ San Francisco Giants 01:07 BST

It's Game 2 of the 2012 World Series, and the Detroit Tigers head back to San Francisco's AT&T Park with their tails firmly between their legs after last night's 8-3 defeat. The Tigers looked a little rusty after their five days off and the Giants' hefty slugger Pablo Sandoval capitalised by hitting a homer trifecta, with the first two coming off the normally dependable Justin Verlander (who looked overwhelmed at times) to crucially win a postseason series opener.

The Giants incredibly won six elimination games on the bounce to make the World Series, and they will want to avoid the heart-attack inducing tension of another if at all possible. The Game 1 winners have gone on to win the Series 66 times, or 61.7 percent of the time, and since 1993 all of the 11 home teams who were victorious in Game 1 have ultimately become champions.

The wounded Tigers have Doug Fister on the mound this evening, who in the regular season only went 10-10 with an ERA of 3.45 due to an injury-jinxed year, but in his late season play in September and especially in the postseason, he really stepped up a gear. The self-confessed Giants fan has a 0-0 record from his two playoff games in 2012 (both ending in victories for Detroit), and that hardly does him justice after pitching 13.1 innings which featured 13 strikeouts, and only two runs in 12 hits.

Another key attribute for the Giants last night was the strength of the pitching of Barry Zito, and crucially the dependability of their bullpen led by Tim Lincecum (who relieved Zito in the 6th inning) who were able to largely contain the Detroit offence and protect their six run lead. The Giants will tonight start lefty Madison Bumgarner who went 16-11 with an ERA of 3.37 in regular season action, but who is now 0-2 in the postseason this year, conceding a total of 10 runs in eight innings pitched, in losses to both the Reds and Cardinals.

The Tigers will be hurting from last night, and led by Doug Fister, I expect them to level the series tonight.

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