SAN FRANCISCO — Giants manager Bruce Bochy normally waits until after Game 1 to announce his Game 2 starter, but Tuesday night he went against that policy and said Madison Bumgarner would get the ball Thursday night against the Tigers after Barry Zito starts Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the World Series at AT&T Park.
Bochy had options. He could have brought back Ryan Vogelsong on three days’ rest or turned to former ace Tim Lincecum.
“Madison has had the break we wanted to give him,’’ Bochy said of the lefty, who is 0-2 with an 11.25 ERA in two postseason games. “It has allowed him to get some bullpen [sessions] in, work on some things. I know he got off his good mechanics there a little bit.’’
As for Lincecum, Bochy is comfortable with him in the bullpen, where he has worked out of in three of his four postseason appearances.
“We just think he’s better served for this club at this point helping us out of the bullpen,’’ Bochy said of Lincecum, who is 1-1 with a 3.46 ERA in the postseason. “He gives us another weapon there. He is resilient, I can use him back-to-back days, I can use him three or four innings. If something happens, we can start him.’’
Bochy said Vogelsong and Matt Cain will start Games 3 and 4.
The Tigers will go with ace Justin Verlander tonight. He will be followed by Doug Fister, Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer.
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Jim Leyland is still going to play his closer situation game-to-game. Leyland used Phil Coke to finish three games (two saves) in the ALCS against the Yankees after Jose Valverde flushed a four-run lead in the ninth inning of Game 1.
“I am going to play it by ear, see what happens,’’ Leyland said. “I don’t really have any definite information on that yet. We will see how the game plays out, who is coming up.’’
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Delmon Young’s playing time in left field was drastically reduced after a late-April incident outside the Tigers’ Manhattan hotel that allegedly included yelling anti-Semitic remarks, for which he was arraigned on a hate crime harassment charge.
Nevertheless, with the designated hitter not in play for games at AT&T, Young will have to play left in order for Tigers manager Leyland to get his productive bat in the order. He will start in left tonight.
Young, who was the ALCS MVP against the Yankees, is batting .294 (10-for-34) with two homers and eight RBIs in nine postseason games.
Young started 30 games in left this year, 118 as the DH. He batted .300 (33-for-110) with five homers and 15 RBIs as the left fielder and .260 (120-for-461) with 13 homers and 59 RBIs as the DH.
Young said the job is to catch the ball in games because “we all look like Gold Glovers off a fungo.’’
Young on the Tigers being a heavy favorite: “I don’t bet … so.’’
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So much for the best umpires being rewarded by World Series assignments.
Included in the six-man rotation for the World Series is Joe West, generally considered among the worst umpires in the game to go along with a confrontational personality.
Twenty-nine year veteran Gerry Davis will be the crew chief and joined by Brian Gorman, Fieldin Culbreth, Dan Iassogna and Brian O’Nora.
It is the fifth World Series assignment for Davis and West, third for Gorman, second for Culbreth and the first for Iassogna and O’Nora.
When Davis works Game 1, he will set a record for the most postseason games umpired in MLB history. After working five games in the 2012 Division Series, Davis has worked 111 postseason games, matching retired umpires Jerry Crawford and Bruce Froemming for the most ever.
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Verlander is the only pitcher ever to have won Rookie of the Year (2006), Cy Young (2011), MVP (2011) and to have started the All-Star Game (2012). Don Newcombe won the three awards but didn’t start an All-Star Game.
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Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera is the fourth straight winner of the Triple Crown to reach the World Series. Mickey Mantle (1956), Frank Robinson (1966) and Carl Yastrzemski (1967) were the others.
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The AL leads World Series action, 62-45, but the NL has won straight and four of the last the last six.
The winner of the first game has won the World Series 61.7 percent of the time. That has happened in eight of the past nine and 13 of the past 15.
The last time the Giants and Tigers met was 2011 when the Giants took two of three in Detroit.
The club with the home-field advantage (in this case the Giants) has won 21 of the 26 World Series since 1985. The exceptions are the Blue Jays (1992), Yankees (1996), Marlins (2003), Cardinals (2006) and Phillies (2008).
george.king@nypost.com