Tigers' Sanchez: 'I don't feel too much pressure'

• The Tigers face a two-game deficit in the World Series against the Giants
• Game 3 starter Anibal Sanchez doesn't feel the pressure
• Sanchez has a 1.98 ERA in five career starts against the Giants

It's Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland's favorite old story.

"If you studied for the test and there's the test, it's good pressure," he said Friday afternoon at Comerica Park. "If you haven't studied for the test, it's bad pressure."

The test: A two-game deficit in the World Series against the Giants.

The pressure: Not on the mind of Tigers Game 3 starter Anibal Sanchez.

"I don't feel too much pressure about it," he said. "Everybody is going to be relaxed. We know we are home, we know we play really good here."

And while Detroit has only been Sanchez's home for a few months — after being traded from the Marlins in late July — the 28-year-old right-hander from Venezuela has acclimated himself well with the team and tonight has a chance to pitch the them back into theseries against the Giants.

"We need to start over," Sanchez said. "We need to forget what happened in San Francisco. I know we've got the talent, that's why we're here."

And it starts with Sanchez, who has a 1.98 ERA in five career starts against the Giants. His 3-1 record includes a shutout in 2010 and another in 2011.

"He's been tough on us," San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. "We know we have our work cut out for us when we're facing him because he's been hard on us. "

In two starts against them this season with the Marlins, Sanchez twirled a gem— seven innings, one run on May 3 — and was twirled around — five-plus innings, five runs on May 24 — setting up tonight's rubber match in the most crucial of situations for the Tigers.

"I expect him to pitch a good game," Leyland said. "I think he will be fine."

Leyland, the Tigers' manager since 2006, noted the feeling-out process it tookSanchez — with catcher Alex Avila and pitching coach Jeff Jones — to get to this point, where he had allowed no more than two runs in eight of his past 10 starts.

"I think the biggest way to earn a pitcher's trust is just to have good games with him," Avila said. "Really with him, it was just a matter of knowing that he's the type of guy that has confidence in all of his pitches, and that he can throw it at any time in the count for strikes."

In two postseason starts, Sanchez has allowed two runs in 13/61/37 innings while surrendering only eight hits.

Now, in his first World Series start, he will try to pick the Tigers up off the mat and pick up where they left off — winning at home.

"(Today) is going to be a different story," he said. "They won at home, we need to win at home."