DETROIT — Their bodies possess more bulk, but if you focus hard on Miguel Cabrera’s and Prince Fielder’s World Series at-bats, it’s easy to see Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez earlier this postseason.
Cano and Rodriguez didn’t hit in the ALCS and were blamed for the Yankees not reaching the World Series.
Unless the Tigers can win four straight, Cabrera and Fielder are going be fingered as the biggest reasons the AL champs didn’t win the World Series.
The Tigers’ best hitters had plenty of company swinging dead bats last night in Game 3 at Comerica Park where the Giants copped a 2-0 victory in front of 42,262 chilled customers, some who booed Fielder in the eighth when he whiffed.
The win moved the Giants into a commanding 3-0 lead, and they can clinch their second World Series title in three years tonight if they complete the sweep in Game 4.
“It’s a good situation, but nothing has been done yet,’’ Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.”You have to keep going about your business as usual.’’
Matt Cain, the Giants’ best hurler, starts Game 4 for the Giants and Max Scherzer goes for the Tigers, who have been blanked in 18 straight innings. It’s the first back-to-back shutouts in the World Series since the Orioles beat the Dodgers, 1-0, in Games 3 and 4 in 1966.
“I don’t make excuses, we are just not hitting,’’ said Fielder, who killed a first-inning scoring chance by banging into a double play and was hitless in four at-bats and is 1-for-10 with a single.
Cabrera, the Triple Crown winner this season and favorite to be named AL MVP, went 1-for-4. He is 2-for-9 in the Series with two singles.
Unlike Fielder, Cabrera wasn’t available to speak with reporters after the game.
Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong kept the Tigers bats frigid on a night when the first-pitch temperature was 47 degrees, dropped to 45 in the fourth and finished at 44.
His biggest out came in the fifth when he popped up Cabrera to leave the bases loaded and keep the 2-0 lead intact.
“I was just trying to get him to put the ball in play, and I was able to do that,’’ said Vogelsong, who allowed five hits and four walks in 5 2/3 innings, but kept the Tigers hitless in four at-bats with runners in scoring position. He induced double-play ground balls to get out of jams in the first and third innings.
In four postseason starts, the well-traveled right-hander is 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA.
Tim Lincecum replaced Vogelsong with two outs in the sixth and provided 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief. Sergio Romo worked a perfect ninth.
Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings but was victimized by a lineup that is swinging wet newspapers instead of bats.
In three games, the Tigers are hitting a woeful .165 (15-for-91) and have one double and a homer. They are 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Like everybody else, Fielder felt good about Cabrera in the fifth.
“We had the bases loaded with Miggy up and we had a chance,’’ Fielder said. “But they are a World Series team for a reason.’’
If the Tigers have one more dreadful night at the plate, the Giants will be more than a World Series team — they will be World Series champions.
“You don’t have to tell them anything, they can count,’’ Jim Leyland said of his team’s three-game deficit. “There is no secret formula or message for them.’’
And not much time left to reinforce the belief that you can’t win if you don’t hit.