Including the postseason, the Giants have four 3-HR games at home this year. The last three have come in support of Barry Zito. In those three games, Zito has allowed 22 hits and 5 walks in 17.1 IP, but no HRs.

Pablo Sandoval has an RBI in 6 straight postseason games. His career-long streak in the regular season is 5 games. The MLB postseason record is 8 games, shared by Alex Rodriguez (yes!), Ryan Howard and Lou Gehrig. Only Howard did it in one season; Gehrig split his streak neatly over the 1928 and 1932 sweeps, with a total of 17 RBI in the 8 games.

Al Alburquerque is the only pitcher in MLB history who has allowed a HR in the postseason (2 in 22 batters), but none in his regular-season career (56.2 IP, 235 batters). He has the most innings of any active HR-free pitcher, and ranks 3rd for the live-ball era; Arnie Stone holds the live-ball record at 76.1 IP. Both postseason HRs off Alburquerque were epic; besides Panda’s third of Game 1, he also served up the only postseason grand slam by a Yankee this century, on the 2nd pitch of his postseason debut.

The last two postseason RBI by a pitcher against Detroit came from one of the greatest WS performers of all time.

By my count, teams that won Game 1 at home have gone on to win 41 of 62 Series. Teams that won games 1 and 2 at home have won 29 of 36 Series.

Neither of the Game 2 starters has much experience against the opposing hitters. All Tigers combined have just 34 PAs against Madison Bumgarner (10 for 31, all singles) and none has more than 10 trips. Among the Giants, only Marco Scutaro has ever faced Doug Fister, with just a single in 11 ABs, but 2 walks against 1 strikeout.

Tim Lincecum is likely unavailable tonight; he’s never pitched consecutive days in the majors. Alburquerque has never worked the day after going more than one inning.

Questions:

• Speaking of Fister, am I the only one who keeps mispronouncing it as Jack “The Giant Killer” Pfiester?
• Surely I’m not the only one who knows that, over the last two years combined, among the 78 pitchers with at least 300 IP, Fister ranks 10th with a 131 ERA+, five spots above, say, Matt Cain (123), and also leads Cain in WAR by 8.1-6.9 in that span?
• Can you think of any reason for Pablo Sandoval‘s career splits? On the road: .278 BA/.791 OPS. At home: .328/.900.
• Would Melky Cabrera have made either of the synchronized diving catches that Gregor Blanco made last night?
• Would Hunter Pence fare better if he went to the plate with his bat already broken?
• Which team will be more discombobulated by their unfamiliar position? The Tigers never trailed in the first two series, while the Giants never led.