|
 Giants ace Bumgarner delivered a dominating seven innings of work
and Hunter Pence slammed a two-run homer in the first inning that
pushed the Royals into an early hole they were unable to claw out of
at their Kauffman Stadium home.
"(Bumgarner) was on top of his game," Giants manager Bruce Bochy
told reporters. "He had his fastball going but his secondary pitches
were good too."
With the Royals back in the Fall Classic for the first time in 29
years, fans arrived early to tailgate and barbeque, and filled the
stadium ready to party and watch their team add to an unbeaten 8-0
playoff run.
But the Giants, bidding for a third title in five years, played
party poopers snapping an 11-game Royals postseason win streak that
stretched back to their 1985 World Series triumph.
"It would have been nice to go 12-0," said Royals veteran Alex
Gordon about sweeping through to a World Series title. "I mean that
would have been pretty cool, but it's not bad to have a major league
record of 8-0.
"We'll be satisfied with that and move on and start a new streak."
Game Two of the best-of-seven is on Wednesday in Kansas City.
Making his first start since the American League Championship Series
opener on Oct. 10, rusty Royals righty James Shield could not find
his rhythm and labored through three-plus innings in which he was
pounded for five runs on seven hits.
"I don't think the layoff had anything to do with the ball game
tonight," said Royals manager Ned Yost. "I think what had a lot to
do with the game tonight was Madison Bumgarner."
Bumgarner, the MVP of the National League Championship Series, was
sensational.
The big lefty surrendered just one run on three hits, striking out
five and walking one.
The Giants struck quickly against Shields with five hits in the
opening frame, including a two-run shot from Pence and an RBI-double
from Pablo Sandoval to jump in front 3-0 and quiet the crowd of
40,000.
The Royals had the stadium rocking again in the third, but Bumgarner
worked his way out of a jam after an error by shortstop Brandon
Crawford and a double by Mike Moustakas put runners on second and
third with none out.
[to top of second column] |
"That is one of my favorite things to be able to do in baseball, to
work through a situation like that," said Bumgarner.
The 25-year-old struck out Alicdes Escobar and contact hitter Nori
Aoki and then got Eric Hosmer to ground out to snuff the threat
without a run.
"My team mates picked me up way more often than I get a chance to
pick them up," he said about Crawford's error. "Those strikeout
situations, we were going for them and trying to keep them off the
board. That's nice."
Pence led off the fourth with a double and scored on a line drive
single to center from Michael Morse that chased Shields from the
game.
Reliever Danny Duffy issued a bases loaded walk to Gregor Blanco to
push across another Giants run to make it 5-0.
The Giants padded the lead in the seventh with Joe Panik and
Sandoval driving in runs before Kansas City finally got on the
scoreboard off Bumgarner in the bottom of the inning.
Salvador Perez homered over the wall in left, the solo shot ending
Bumgarner's postseason record of 32 and two-thirds scoreless innings
pitched on the road.
"Tonight, that was the last thing on my mind," Bumgarner said about
the streak. "We're up 7-0, so I'm just trying to compete and go
after guys and be aggressive."
(Additional reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; editing by
Sudipto Ganguly)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
