San Francisco Giants World Series Win Recap

Well folks, they’ve done it. They’ve become the first road team since the 1979 Pirates to win a game seven on the road in the World Series. They’ve become the second team in National League history to win three championships in a five year span.  They are your 2014 World Champion San Francisco Giants.

It wasn’t easy. In fact, one (or everyone to be more precisely) might even call it torture. But it happened, despite Gregor Blanco’s center field mishap that nearly spoiled things.

In fact, it was Madison Bumgarner’s brilliance that sealed the deal. It was Jeremy Affeldt picking up the win after coming in and quieting the Kansas City bats. It was Michael Morse picking up two RBI’s in this game. It was Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford turning double plays. It was Pablo Sandoval reaching base all four times he got to the plate.

Things got off to a somewhat quiet start when neither team made many waves during the first inning, but that quickly changed in the second.

That’s when the San Francisco Giants broke the ice in the World Series after getting leadoff hitter Pablo Sandoval aboard by way of a hit batsman. That was followed with base hits by Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt loading the bases with nobody out.

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From there the San Francisco Giants went full small-ball mode and drove in two runs on back-to-back sacrifice flies. The first, which broke the scoreless tie, came off the bat of Michael Morse. The second was by Brandon Crawford.

would strike out to end the inning, but by then it was 2-0 Giants.

In the bottom of the inning the Kansas City Royals struck back with two runs of their own, first on an Alex Gordon double that brought Billy Butler all the way home from first base.

Afterward Royals catcher Salvador Perez was hit just above the knee by a pitch that would slow him down quite visibly and which definitely came back to hurt Kansas City throughout the game. Perez would stay in, but it was clear the workhorse catcher was not the same the rest of the game.

With runners on first and second Tim Hudson was able to get back-to-back fly balls from Mike Moustakas and Omar Infante, with the latter being a sacrifice tying the game at two apiece. That was followed by a hard-hit single up the middle.

That was enough for Bruce Bochy to yank Hudson from the game and in came lefty Jeremy Affeldt, who oddly enough started his career with the Royals. Two pitches later Affeldt induces a grounder from Nori Aioki and gets out of the jam and holding the score at 2-2.

In the top of the fourth the San Francisco Giants would strike again to regain the lead, and once again it was Morse coming through. This time though it was against one of Kansas City’s top relievers Kelvin Herrera.

The run was once again created after Sandoval and Pence led off the inning with back-to-back hits. Morse muscled an inside pitch to right field allowing Sandoval to score from third as Pence made his way to third base with just one out. Unfortunately for the Giants, they would not be able to capitalize any further.

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That would be all they needed though as Jeremy Affeldt shut the door by inducing two double play balls in the third and fourth innings before handing the ball to Madison Bumgarner in the fifth. Even the Giants would have trouble getting guys on base the rest of the evening as Herrera would settle in.

Herrera would eventually give the ball to Wade Davis for the seventh and eighth innings, then closer Greg Holland came in for the ninth.

None of that mattered though, as Bumgarner showcased why he may be considered one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all-time, even at just 25 years old. The lefty would come in to pitch five innings of shutout ball, though he did get off to a rocky start when he first entered the game.

In that fifth inning Infante singled to lead off the inning and it was clear Bumgarner was not quiet warm yet. He wasn’t quite hitting all his spots, but got some help from Alcides Escobar (apparently the bunt was not called by Ned Yost) who decided to drop a sacrifice bunt on a 2-0 count in order to move Infante into scoring position.

Aoiki would hit a pretty good shot down the left field line, but in perfect position was defensive outfielder Juan Perez. While he may get credit for making the catch, the coaching staff deserved the credit for putting him in a fantastic position to make the play.

Bumgarner then got himself out of the jam by getting Lorenzo Cain to strike out to end the inning. From then on it was pretty much lights out.

Bumgarner would go on to completely shut down the Royals until the bottom of the ninth inning when it became the ultimate clash of ‘Dynasty’ versus ‘Destiny’.

After getting the first two batters out, Gordon came to the plate and proceeded to hit a single to left-center field and eventually reached third base on an error by Blanco who misplayed the bouncing ball as it rolled all the way to the wall.

Should Gordon have been waved home?

It’s certainly up for discussion and in hindsight Royals fans may be saying yes, but after multiple replays it looks as though Gordon would have been gunned out.

Either way, catcher Perez was the one who came to the plate and popped out in foul territory to Sandoval to end the game. Bumgarner was in control of the at-bat from the start and the wild-swinging Perez couldn’t lay off pitches up and out of the zone. From there it was all celebrations.

This was quite the historic night as well, with a few records being made.

Free agent to be Pablo Sandoval entered the night just two hits shy of the record for hits in a single postseason. He broke that record in the top of the eighth inning with a double for his 26^th hit to take sole possession of the record.

Madison Bumgarner entered the game just 2/3 of an inning shy of tying Curt Shilling’s 2001 record for most innings pitched in the postseason. By going five innings in game seven Bumgarner pretty much shattered that record.

What a way to end the season. It was a fantastic game, an even better World Series, and a historic run once again by the improbable San Francisco Giants who will now be stirring up questions as to whether this team of misfits will be considered a dynasty. Any answer other than a yes must surely be wrong.