Ryan Vogelsong, Giants Blank Tigers for 3-0 World Series Lead

Players of the Day for Saturday, October 27, 2012

World Series

Game Three: San Francisco 2 Detroit 0 - After a long, exciting season, it appears that baseball is going to come to a close with a whimper rather than a bang, and that whimper will be the sound of Detroit Tiger bats missing and grazing pitches thrown by San Francisco hurlers.

The Giants took a 3-0 lead in the 2012 World Series, blanking the Tigers for the second straight game, by the identical score of game two, 2-0.

Ryan Vogelsong

Ryan Vogelsong was the catalyst to the Giants being lifted to the precipice of greatness, within one game of capturing the autumn classic. Far from perfect - or even dominant - the 6'4" righty threw 104 pitches - getting strikes on only 60 of them - in just 5 2/3 innings, walking four while surrendering five hits.

Working with runners aboard in every inning except the second, Vogelsong induced a pair of double plays, getting him out of jams in the first and third innings. After getting the first two outs in the sixth, he walked Andy Dirks, then handed the ball over to Tim Lincecum, who got Jhonny Peralta to line out to right for the third out of the inning.

Lincecum worked the seventh and eighth without incident, then gave way to Sergio Romo, who picked up his second save of the series, getting the Tigers in order in the ninth.

The Giants got both of their runs in the second inning off Detroit starter, Anibal Sanchez, who was good, but not good enough, fanning eight over seven innings, but giving up the crucial two runs on a triple by Gregor Blanco, which plated Hunter Pence with the game's first run. Brandon Crawford singled home Blanco for the 2-0 lead, which was all the Giants needed.

No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to capture the World Series and it doesn't look like the Tigers have enough fight left in them to win even one game against the pitching-rich Giants.

Triple crown winner, Miguel Cabrara, is batting just .222, while right behind him in the order, Prince Fielder has produced only one hit in three games, a harmless first game single, going 1-for-10 for an even .100 batting average. Quentin Berry is hitless in five at-bats.

Omar Infante and leadoff hitter, Austin Jackson, are both going at a .333 clip, but nobody has been able to pick them up. The last runs scored by Detroit were a pair on a two-run homer in the ninth inning of game one by Peralta, which mattered little, making the score 8-3. Since then, it's been nothing but zeroes for the once-mighty Tigers, 18 straight innings of blanks on the scoreboard.

The Giants can wrap up the sweep in game four on Sunday night. Matt Cain takes the mound for the Giants against the Tigers' Max Scherzer. Game time is set for 8:07 pm EDT.