NATIONAL PRIDE: Tim Lincecum’s Giants and Tony La Russa’s Cardinals have won the last two World Series titles, both defeating the AL Texas Rangers, and with another San Francisco title this year, the NL would have three in a row for the first time since 1979-82. (AP; Getty Images)
(
)
DETROIT — Remember when former minor league baseball player Michael Jordan sank six 3-pointers against Portland in the 1992 NBA Finals, turned to the broadcast table and shrugged his shoulders, conveying an “I don’t know how I’m doing this” message?
The San Francisco Giants should try a group performance of that this morning.
The Giants are in a zone, which is great for them but also means this: The casual baseball fan is ready to zone out. Expect minimal buzz as the Giants try to win their seventh World Series title tonight in the minimum number of games.
The Tigers’ return to Comerica Park last night brought colder weather and similar misery, as San Francisco starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong, exceptional long reliever Tim Lincecum and closer Sergio Romo combined to shut out Detroit, 2-0, in Game 3. With a commanding 3-0 lead in games, the Giants need to win just one of the next two games here — with ace Matt Cain starting tonight’s Game 4 — to finish off Jim Leyland’s reeling group and return West only for a parade.
“I’ll say this: The club is playing well,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said.
Vogelsong, a comeback story impressive enough to qualify as R.A. Dickey’s opening act, didn’t have great stuff, as he scattered five hits and four walks throughout his 5 2/3 innings, striking out three. Nevertheless, he maintained the Tigers’ stretch of futility by leaving six runners on base and holding Detroit hitless in four at-bats with runners in scoring position.
The Comerica crowd, amped up for its Tigers and extremely supportive during the early rallies, turned on the team Yankee Stadium-style when Quintin Berry struck out against Lincecum on three pitches in the seventh inning, stranding former Yankees prospect Austin Jackson at first base.
Vogelsong’s Tigers counterpart, Anibal Sanchez, actually pitched the superior game, tallying eight strikeouts against a walk and six hits in seven innings. Yet the Giants cobbled together a couple of runs in the second, courtesy of just one hard-hit ball (Gregor Blanco’s triple off the lower part of the wall in right-center field), and that was one more than they needed.
The Giants are enjoying an October for the ages. They came back from a 2-0 hole against Cincinnati in the National League Division Series, winning three straight in the best-of-five event, then prevailed after falling behind, 3-1, to St. Louis in the NL Championship Series, again winning three straight in the best-of seven competition. In all, they won six straight elimination games, a remarkable display of resilience.
With just one day off between NLCS Game 7 and World Series Game 1, the Giants seemed to carry over their mojo from one round to the next, while Detroit’s American League Championship Series sweep of the Yankees feels longer ago than a time without the Internet.
“I think where we were at in the NLDS and [NL]CS and here, it gave us the momentum and the drive to know that we can do anything if our backs are against the wall,” Lincecum said. “So if we’re in the driver’s seat and we’re up 3-0, we are looking to make a statement there. So that’s what we’re looking for [tonight].”
And that’s how the Giants have turned a promising Major League Baseball postseason into a poor one.
Four-game World Series are bad for business, and five-game battles are only marginally better. The television ratings plummet because the series no longer feels competitive, and the revenue from the sold tickets and commercials for the later games must be returned. In all, everyone besides the fans of the champions come away saying, “Well, that was really lame.”
Every Fall Classic can’t last seven games and feature multiple memorable moments, as did last year’s between the Cardinals and Rangers. Yet if this doesn’t return to San Francisco — the safe bet now — it would be the seventh World Series in the last nine years to last five games or fewer.
That’s too little inventory for baseball’s liking and that of its television partners, and there’s absolutely nothing that can be done. Sometimes one team gets on a roll like this, so much so that a Jordan-esque shrug would be perfectly appropriate.
Sometimes the other team falls into a collective funk. And if the 1992 Trail Blazers aren’t available, then the 2012 Yankees surely would be willing to counsel Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and the rest of the gang.