SAN FRANCISCO — A bump and a few lace marks were the only damage to the back of Doug Fister’s head after taking a fierce liner off Gregor Blanco’s bat.
“I am fine,’’ the Tigers right-hander said after hurling six-plus innings and absorbing a 2-0 loss in Game 2 Thursday night. He was hit in the second inning with the ball bouncing off his skull and landing in center field for a hit. “I am going to get checked out by the doctor but I feel fine.’’
Fister said he was going to fly with the Tigers back to Detroit tonight and made light of what could have been a very serious situation.
“My father said as long as I got hit in the head I was OK,’’ said Fister, a California native who had 13 friends and family at AT&T Park.
When Tigers manager Jim Leyland and a trainer went to the mound to see Fister, they asked him a series of questions that he passed and was allowed to stay in the game.
* The Giants’ 2-0 lead is the 53rd time in World Series history that’s happened. Forty-one times in the first 52 (78.8 percent).the team with the 2-0 advantage has won the Series
* Pablo Sandoval went 1-for-3 and is the early MVP candidate thanks to three homers he hit in Game 1 when he went 4-for-4 and drove in four runs.
Sandoval is batting .368 (21-for-57) with six homers and 13 RBIs in 14 postseason games.
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Leyland’s first seven hitters against Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner last night in Game 2 were the same as they were in Game 1 against left-hander Barry Zito. Nevertheless, Leyland swapped catcher Gerald Laird for Alex Aviles in the eighth spot.
The right-handed hitting Laird, who went 0-for-3, usually plays against lefties but Leyland wanted to use the left-handed hitting Avila in Game 1 because he hadn’t played since Oct. 16 in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Yankees and the manager wanted to pair Avila with Justin Verlander.
“Alex would have sat out for 10 days without playing at all,’’ Leyland said. “He had a good rapport with Verlander. It didn’t work out that way but I think it made a lot of sense.’’
“Alex will play when we get home against the right-hander (Ryan) Vogelsong,’’ Leyland said of the Giants’ Game 3 starter. “
Nothing worked for the Tigers lineup, which only got two hits off Giants pitching, and their ace Verlander was rocked for five runs and six hits (two homers by Sandoval) in four innings.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy’s first eight against Fister were the same as in Game 1 against Verlander.
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Leyland stuck with Delmon Young, who went 1-for-3, in left and gave no thought to using the left-handed hitting Andy Dirks against Bumgarner.
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Asked about the possibility of bringing Verlander back early because of the four-inning stint in which he threw 98 pitches, Leyland said,”Well, he is coming back in Game 5, I hope.’’
Leyland said Verlander wouldn’t pitch Game 4 Sunday.
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Leyland admitted Jose Valverde’s Game 1 outing wasn’t much but did take a few positives out of it.
“I don’t think he was bad, he wasn’t real good,’’ Leyland said of his former closer who gave up two runs and four hits in one-third of an inning. “He was [throwing] 92, 93 and I saw a couple of 94s [mph], so I think it’s just a matter of locating his fastball and keeping it out of the middle of the plate. I certainly don’t think he was real bad and he certainly wasn’t real good, don’t get me wrong. But I thought it was an opportunity to get him back out there, get him back on the mound.’’
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The Giants hit 31 homers at AT&T Park this season and three — all by Sandoval — in Game 1. Is that the result of the climate change helping the ball travel better?
“I think sometimes the weather will play a part in it, especially warmer weather or day games,’’ Bochy said. “It seems to carry better here but those balls Pablo hit, he hit pretty good.’’
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Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon attended Game 2 so he could take part in MLB’s pregame festivities honoring veterans of World War II. In 2008, Wilpon founded a fundraising initiative called “Welcome Back Veterans” which helps veterans returning home from combat.
Though Wilpon is still very involved in the Mets’ day-to-day operations, he demurred from commenting on the club’s offseason activity, merely offering support for general manager Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins.
“They’re working very hard,” Wilpon said of the Mets’ brain trust. “I think they have a good plan, and they now have to execute that plan.”
Asked how the club was progressing in its effort to sign David Wright to a long-term extension, Wilpon said: “I don’t want to get into that. I know there’s some conversations. If there haven’t been already, there will be some soon.”
