Giants offense reverts back to its opportunistic ways

• The Giants offense manged just five hits, but it scored when it had chances
• Bochy: "It's our style, really, and it's been like that for the last few years here"
• Neither of the Giants runs scored on a hit in Game 2

SAN FRANCISCO -- It turns out Game 1 of the World Series was an aberration for the San Francisco Giants.

In Game 2, it was back to squeezing out a couple of runs and hoping it was enough to win as the Giants blanked the Detroit Tigers 2-0 on Thursday night at AT&T Park to a take a 2-0 lead in the series.

The Giants managed just five hits one night after rolling to an 8-3 victory in Game 1 behind third baseman Pedro Sandoval's three home runs. Neither of the Giants' runs scored on a hit: one came home on a double play, and the other on a sacrifice fly.

"It's our style, really, and it's been like that for the last few years here," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We play a lot of close games, and these guys are used to it. We wish we could do things a little bit easier, but that's not our way."

The game was scoreless going into the bottom of the seventh inning when Hunter Pence led off by grounding a single into left field. That finished starting pitcher Doug Fister, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland brought in rookie left-hander Drew Smyly.

Brandon Belt drew a walk and then Gregor Blanco tried to move the runners up with a sacrifice bunt. Instead, he wound up loading the bases with none out when his bunt hugged the third-base line for a single.

Brandon Crawford then bounced into a 4-6-3 double play, allowing Pence to score.

Pence hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the eighth inning off Octavio Dotel to drive in Angel Pagan, who drew a leadoff walk off Smiley and stole second base, with an insurance run.

Blanco's bunt was reminiscent of Pagan's double during a three-run third inning in Game 1. Pagan's grounder caromed off the third-base bag and past third baseman Miguel Cabrera into left field.

"That's why baseball is so much fun," Blanco said. "Sometimes you can hit 10 balls hard to center field and go 0-for-10 then you can get a bunt single. It was definitely a little bit of luck there, but it's the World Series and we'll take all the luck we can get."

Leyland opted to play his middle infield at double-play depth rather than try to get a force at the plate with the bases loaded. The decision proved to be costly as the winning run scored.

Leyland, though, refused to second-guess himself.

"Some people might debate that, but I felt we had to take our best shot to come out of it with one run because if we don't score, it doesn't make any difference anyway," Leyland said. "We had to get out of that with them not scoring more than one run. I thought that was a no-brainer, to be honest with you, in my opinion."

While Pence was in the middle of both rallies, he deflected praise to his teammates.

"It was a great collective effort," Pence said. "The Brandon Belt walk was a really big at-bat. That was huge. To get on with nobody out and then draw a walk, you're in a great situation, a great spot where Blanco can bunt me over and he put down one of most beautiful bunts you'll ever see."