After last night's Game 1 victory over Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers, the San Francisco Giants are trying to accomplish something they haven't been able to do at all so far in the playoffs, to be the team with the early series lead.
San Francisco found themselves down 0-2 in the Division Series heading to Cincinnati for three games. And in the League Championship Series they were down 3-1 to the Cardinals and were able to pull off a nearly impossible series win in seven games.
Tonight's big stories will be Madison Bumgarner and the Tigers team as a whole.
Bumgarner has not had a good postseason. He's pitched in two games and has lost them both. Both games were at home and both outings were short. He lasted only 4 1/3 innings in a 9-0 loss against Cincinnati in NLDS Game 2 and in the NLCS he was even worse, giving up six runs in 3 2/3 innings - including two home runs - in Game 1 against the Cardinals.
For the Tigers, many people were wondering if the long layoff between their sweep in the ALCS and Game 1 had anything to do with their subpar performance last night. Or maybe the fact they were an 88-win team in a division that had three 90+ loss teams was finally catching up to them.
Doug Fister is looking to continue his strong postseason pitching tonight. He's only given up two runs in 13 1/3 innings of work.
So which story will win out in the end? The Bumgarner Redemption or the Tiger Resurgence?
We'll find out at later tonight.
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