DETROIT – On Their Feet, Twirling Their Rally Towels And Shouting Themselves Hoarse, The Fans Of Comerica Park Sensed That This Chance Might Not Come Again For Their Beloved Tigers.

They Were Right.

After Squandering A Splendid Scoring Opportunity In The Fifth Inning, The Detroit Tigers Lost 2-0 To The San Francisco Giants And Face The Prospect Of A Four-game World Series Sweep If They Cannot Snap Out Of Their Offensive Doldrums On Sunday Night.

The Tigers Loaded The Bases With One Out In The Fifth, But Ryan Vogelsong Struck Out Quintin Berry And Retired Miguel Cabrera On A Pop-up. It Was The Most Propitious In A Series Of Scoring Chances That Detroit Mounted Early In The Game.

San Francisco Has Shut Out The Tigers In Two Straight Games And Outscored Them 12-3 In The Series. The Tigers’ Vaunted Offence Is Batting .165 (15-for-91) Against The Giants.

After Dropping The First Two Games In San Francisco To Left-handed Starters, The Tigers Hoped To Step Up Against The Right-handed Vogelsong, Who Has Been The Giants’ Best Post-season Starter.

Instead, They Limp Into Game 4 Facing Ignominious Elimination.

When Berry Struck Out Against Tim Lincecum To Strand A Runner In The Seventh, Scattered Boos Arose From The Crowd Of 42,262.

Max Scherzer Will Start Against Giants Ace Matt Cain On Sunday Night.

The Tigers’ Big Guns, Miguel Cabrera And Prince Fielder, Continued Their Struggles. Cabrera, Who Had One Hit, Is 2-for-9 In The Series. Fielder Is 1-for-10.

Before The Game, Detroit Manager Jim Leyland Said He Felt His Two Sluggers Had Hit A Number Of Balls Hard Without Positive Results In The First Two Games.

“Up To This Point, [the Giants] Have Outplayed Us, But I Think Those Guys Are Fine,” Leyland Said. “And I Think They’re Going To Pitch To Them A Little Bit Tougher Than Maybe They Do Somebody Else.”

In Eight At-bats Saturday Night, Cabrera And Fielder Each Managed To Hit One Ball Out Of The Infield.

The Giants Scored Their Runs Against Anibal Sanchez In The Second Inning On Gregor Blanco’s RBI Triple And Brandon Crawford’s Single.

Vogelsong Worked 5 2/3 Innings, Dropping His Post-season ERA To 1.09, A Record For Pitchers Who Have Pitched At Least 24 Innings In The Playoffs. He Escaped Threats In The First, Third And Fifth.

Sanchez Left After Seven Innings, Having Allowed Six Hits. He Struck Out Eight, But His Only Walk — To Hunter Pence Leading Off The Second — Came Around To Score.

The Tigers Were Playing Their First Game Of The Series Before Their Home Fans After Being Outscored 10-3 In Games 1 And 2. The Tigers Put Recurrent Pressure On Vogelsong, But Repeatedly Came Up Short.

In The First Inning, Detroit Had Two Men On Before Prince Fielder Bounced Into An Inning-ending Double Play. Ditto For The Third Inning, Only This Time The Double-play Culprit Was Berry.

Then Came The Glorious Opportunity In The Fifth. Alex Avila And Omar Infante, The Eighth And Ninth Hitters In The Lineup, Each Singled With One Out. When Austin Jackson Walked To Fill The Bases, The Crowd Was On Its Feet, Trying To Will The Tigers To Escape Their Pattern Of Futility.

But Vogelsong Quickly Dispatched Berry And Cabrera And Silenced The Detroit Faithful.

With Their Rotation Well Rested And Lined Up Perfectly Behind A Vaunted Offence, The Tigers Entered The World Series As Favourites. But Then Came The Improbable: The Tigers Stopped Hitting And The Giants Started Winning.

The Giants Enter Sunday’s Game In An Enviable But Unfamiliar Position. In Both The National League Division And Championship Series, They Faced Elimination Five Times And Kept Bouncing Back.

This Time, They Grabbed A Lead In The Second, Thanks In Part To A Brief Patch Of Wildness By Sanchez. He Walked Pence, Who Stole Second And Went To Third On A Wild Pitch. Blanco’s One-out Triple To The Right-field Wall Scored Pence Before Blanco Came Home On Crawford’s Soft Single To Centre.

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