Leyland, Lamont decisions open to question

• Lamont's call get Prince Fielder thrown out at the plate
• Leyland surrendered a run by leaving the infield back
• Tigers head back home down 0-2 in the Series

SAN FRANCISCO – After two games on the road, the Detroit Tigers find themselves in an 0-2 hole, arguably due to a pair of decisions made by the two most experienced baseball men in their dugout.

Third base coach Gene Lamont's decision to send Prince Fielder home on Delmon Young's double in the top of the second inning thwarted the Tigers' best chance to score against San Francisco Giants starter Madison Bumgarner in an eventual 2-0 loss.

Even Tigers manager Jim Leyland conceded that it may not have been the right move.

"I think Gene just got a little overaggressive," Leyland said. "It was a bang-bang play … I thought he was out, but when Prince reacted, I thought, well maybe he might have missed him. But the umpire made a great call."

Of course, it's easy to critique a split-second decision with the benefit of hindsight, but had Lamont held Fielder, that situation – no one out and runners at second and third – gives a team an excellent opportunity to score multiple runs in an inning.

GAME 2:Giants blank Tigers 2-0

According to Baseball Prospectus, this season major league teams scored an average of 1.89 runs each inning when they had runners on second and third with no outs.

But after the slow-moving Fielder was thrown out at the plate and Young was left on second, the average drops to 0.65 runs.

"Any time those kind of big plays happen, it takes away a little momentum," Fielder said. "But you've got to be aggressive and they made a perfect play."

That missed opportunity was magnified when Bumgarner was able to retire Jhonny Peralta and Avasail Garcia and keep the Tigers off the board in what would end up being a scoreless game into the bottom of the seventh.

That was when Leyland made his own questionable decision.

Gregor Blanco's bunt single loaded the bases for the Giants with no one out. Leyland's chose to play his infield at double-play depth with Brandon Crawford at the plate – and when Crawford hit a ground ball to second, the Tigers turned two and allowed the game's first run to score.

"Sometimes you play in and a ball gets through and you have a whole big inning," catcher Gerald Laird said. "Omar (Infante, the Tigers' second baseman) did a good job of getting a double play because if he comes home right there and doesn't get him, it could lead to a bigger inning."

In Leyland's mind, playing back instead of bringing his infielders in to cut off the run at the plate was "a no-brainer."

"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," he explained. "I can't let them open the game up."

But what leaves the decision open for debate is that the Tigers have struggled so far on offense in the World Series and that one run could very well have been the difference in the game.

"We're obviously struggling – only got two hits," Leyland said. "You think you've got a chance with six outs to go to possibly get a run."

Yet Detroit had just sent its best hitters – Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young – to the plate in the top of the seventh.

There was no guarantee any of them would get another chance to hit, leaving the responsibility for manufacturing a run that could possibly get the Tigers back in the game to the hitters at bottom of the lineup.

Sure enough, the Tigers went quietly in the eighth with Jhonny Peralta, pinch-hitter Andy Dirks and catcher Gerald Laird failing to get a ball out of the infield.

After the Giants scored an insurance run in the bottom of the frame on three walks and a sacrifice fly, Giants closer Sergio Romo retired the Tigers in order in the top of the ninth.

The game ended with Cabrera in the on-deck circle.

The Tigers offense has been toothless in the first two games – hitting just .167 – and if they can't start a comeback when they return home to Detroit, those missed opportunities will loom awfully large.