Game Two of the National League Championship Series followed San Francisco's script. With Jason Schmidt starting, the Giants were favored even if Woody Williams pitched without injury troubles. Williams experienced trouble while warming up and wasn't effective in the first inning. Rich Aurilia took advantage of his weakness to put San Francisco on the board early with a solo homer.

Schmidt no-hit the Cardinals through two, but he gave up a single to J.D. Drew to lead of the third. Drew made it to second on a Mike Matheny single, and then Williams laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners one base. Unfortunately, Drew failed to score on a flyout to shallow left field by Fernando Vina. Lofton's throw sailed slightly up the baseline, which may have aided catcher Benito Santiago in tagging Drew. If the throw had been right to the plate, Drew might have been able to slide under the tag or knock the ball from Santiago's glove.

Williams allowed a few baserunners after the first, but he really didn't have any problems until Aurilia came up in the fifth and again took him deep, this time with a runner on base. He remained in the game and pitched a solid sixth before the Cardinals sent in Rick White to relieve him to start the 7th. With his health questions, St. Louis didn't want to leave Williams out for more than 100 pitches.

The Cardinals almost gained momentum in the 7th by getting a couple runners on base. David Bell lunged to his right to snag a bouncing grounder, slid in the dirt, and then fired to first base, but Albert Pujols was safe. Schmidt shut out St. Louis until the 8th when he allowed Eduardo Perez to hit a solo homer. Scott Eyre then entered the game to get the last out of the inning, but Vina singled, so the Giants called on Robb Nen to retire Miguel Cairo. Cairo's magic apparently departed at the end of the Division Series as he went 0-4 on Thursday.

San Francisco manufactured another run in the top of the ninth, cushioning their lead. In the bottom of the ninth, there was some confusion because the umpire called no catch before signaling fair ball on a Jim Edmonds fly ball into the left field corner that Barry Bonds missed. The ball was obviously fair on the replay and Edmonds was safe at second. However, the Cardinals weren't able to knock him in and lost Game Two, 4-1.

Detroit filled their managerial opening on Wednesday with former Tiger shortstop Alan Trammell. In addition to Trammell, the Tigers interviewed Yankee third base coach Willie Randolph and AAA Toledo manager Bruce Fields. They also had permission to talk to Oakland bench coach Ken Macha. However at Trammell's press conference Detroit President, CEO, and GM Dave Dombrowski said he's known Macha for a long time and knew he would interview well, but Dombrowski had basically decided on Trammell at that point.

Trammell signed a three-year contract with Detroit that will keep him with the team through 2005. Following his 20-season major league playing career, which he spent entirely with the Tigers, Trammell remained in the Detroit organization for another four seasons. During that time he worked as a roving minor league instructor, spent some time in the Tigers' front office helping with their minor league draft, and did some scouting. In 1998, he served as Detroit's major league hitting coach. Trammell took a position as San Diego's first base coach in 2000 and has worked in that capacity for the last three years. In addition to coaching first, he was also the outfield and baserunning coach.

The glaring hole in Trammell's resume is his lack of any managerial experience. To the best of our knowledge, he hasn't even managed a little league team. He did have the good fortune to play for Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson for 18 seasons, during which he should have picked up something. Bruce Bochy also should have provided him with a good role model in San Diego. However, Trammell will need a very strong bench coach to appear competent in the majors, and I think he's making a mistake in not seeking some minor league managerial experience before attempting a major league position.

Trammell struck me as a very nice guy during the press conference, but I don't believe he has the preparation necessary to succeed at his new position. He will likely have the support of the players due to his long playing career. In fact, both Bobby Higginson and Damion Easley played with Trammell at the end of his career. Unfortunately, a close camaraderie with the players may actually stand in the way of executing his job, since his inexperience could make it difficult for him to establish boundaries. He may also overly favor the veterans on a team that needs to begin looking to young players.

The Tigers have only named one person to Trammell's coaching staff, fellow managerial candidate Bruce Fields. Fields managed AAA Toledo this past season and has an extensive experience as a minor league coach and manager. Detroit drafted him out of high school in 1978, but he only had a brief major league career as an outfielder. He's spent the last eleven seasons as a coach and manager in the Tigers' minors. Just looking at the AAA team this last season, he seems to encourage walking but his hitters also had a plentiful number of strikeouts. Additionally, he appeared overly fixated on batting average in the few comments I've seen from him, so I doubt Detroit's hitters will experience an offensive renaissance.