This year it seemed like all the talk about the World Series was the ratings, and rightfully so because of how how horrifically bad they were, but lets just put that aside for a moment and talk about how incredible the 110th Fall Classic was from an on-field standpoint.
Start with game one. The build up in Kansas City, the host city, was enormous. It was the first time that a World Series had been held on those grounds since 1985, the year of George Brett. Fox’s pregame hosts were forced to yell into their hand-held microphones before game one just to be heard over the electric crowd behind them. However, once the game started, the hometown Royals didn’t give their team much to get up and yell about. Giants starter Madison Bumgarner was on his game from the first pitch that he threw in the seventh inning. The later-to-be-named World Series MVP allowed just one run on three hits in the outing, giving his team the early edge in the series with a 7-1 win.
Though statistics show that game one winners in the World Series are more likely to win the series, I had a feeling that the Royals weren’t going to go down without a fight. My hunch was proven to be true in game two of the series. The KC kids’ offense came alive, tacking on seven runs on nine hits in the game to even the series at one. Royals second baseman Omar Infante came alive, batting in two runs on a two-run homer in the sixth inning. KC starting pitcher Yordano Ventura, who, at age 23, is just nine years older than me, went five and a third innings, allowing just two runs in his first ever World Series outing. I can’t emphasize enough how much he did for his team throughout the year. The righty finished the regular season with a 3.20 ERA, and averaged just 1.8 runs per game in his last 10 outings outings of the year.
The series shifted to San Francisco for game three, where, even though the Giants have won three World Series in the past five years, the crowd is alway energetic. Game three was an absolutely riveting pitchers duel between Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie and Giants veteran Tim Hudson. Both teams made an interesting decision, which proved to pay off, which was to take their starter out of the game in the fifth inning. Most teams would be hesitant to take their starter, who was pitching well at the time, out of the game in the fifth, but both the Giants and Royals have fantastic bullpens, and managers who know when and how to use them. Even though season awards are voted on before the Postseason, I think that KC manager Ned Yost is a clear choice for AL manager of the year. He actually led his team to the American League title, which is more than any Yankees manager can say for any of the 40 World Series teams that they managed. They were simply at the helm of an extremely well-funded ballclub.
Game four was an offensive explosion from the middle of the order of the San Francisco Giants. San Francisco scored 11 runs on 16 hits, leading them to an 11-4 win, and tying the series up. However, the Kansas City bats weren’t exactly quiet either. They chased Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong out of the game after just two and two third innings, scoring four runs in the top of the third inning. Game four wasn’t exactly pretty pitching like game three, but it was extremely exciting nonetheless due to how much offence there was.
Game five was all San Francisco offensively. The Royals were only able to squander four hits off of starter Madison Bumgarner, who didn’t allow a run and went the distance in his Giants’ 5-0 win.
There was no way the the Royals were going to let the Giants come back to Kansas City and take the series in game six. With Ventura on the mound for KC, I knew right away that we were looking at a game seven. The Royals offense came back to life, as they beat the Giants 10-0 in a one-sided slugfest, forcing a game seven.
The next day, the amount of work that got done in offices in the bay area and in Kansas City was at a bare minimum. Butterflies floated through the stomachs of baseball fans all across the country, as it was time for the most exciting thing in sports: a World Series game seven. Every game seven is special, but this year, the deciding game of the World Series was one for the ages. Tim Hudson started for the Giants, but he lasted just an inning and two thirds, giving way to Jeremy Affeldt who went two and a third, before manager Bruce Bochy handed the ball to the most popular guy in San Francisco: Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner threw five rock solid innings, allowing just two hits and striking out four. Bumgarner was sensational, especially considering that he was only throwing on two-days rest, three days less than he is used too. San Francisco could not have asked any more MadBum.
Bumgarner was nearly flawless until there were two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and Alex Gordon stepped up to the plate. Gordon knocked a single that got by Giants centerfielder Gregor Blanco, and Gordon took two bases on the error, advancing to third.
It’s a situation that every young baseball fan dreams of being in...two outs, bottom of the ninth, game-tying run on third. Heck, Sal Perez probably dreamed about it when he was a kid, just the only difference between his difference between his dreams and reality are that he probably pictured himself hitting the base hit to tie it and send the game into extras instead of popping out to end the World Series. Perez got under a pitch and sent it a mile high before it came down in the glove of Pablo Sandoval to crown the Giants the 2014 world champions.
In my next column I’ll look into the ratings of the World Series and give a breakdown of the numbers to find out how much the sport of baseball really is struggling with popularity.
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