[SSW]

Here's my play by play summary and take on Game 1 of the 2014 World Series.

"Big Game" James Shields pitching for the Royals didn't have any control coming out of the gate and the Giants got on him right away. Blanco gets a quick single, advances to 2nd on Panik's fly and then scores on Posey's single. Then Panda doubles which scores Blanco but Posey is (again) thrown out at the plate. Pence hits a 400+ ft homer which scores Panda and him. Best comment I heard about this: "Big Game Hunter" Pence. Giants lead 3-0.

This is the 3rd time that Posey has been thrown out a the plate in the post-season. The Giants know that Posey is NOT a fast runner and I have NO idea why the 3rd base coach is waiving Posey in from 1st, when he's really got no chance to score. The same thing happened the last 2 times.

If the situation comes up again, they need to hold Posey on 3rd because he just doesn't have the legs. Funniest comment that I read about this: Posey is as slow as "drying cement." If Posey was held, it there have been men at 2nd & 3rd w/only 1 out w/Pence coming up to bat. The Giants were only "lucky" that Pence was able to hit the 2 out HR. In that BIG outfield, it could have easily been a fly out instead, which would have scored Posey if he was on 3rd, but w/2 out, a fly out would have ended the inning leaving 2 men on base w/only 1 run scored. Not smart.

Bumgarner took several innings to get control of his stuff too and got in trouble in the bottom of the 3rd. After Infante got on base on a Crawford error, Moustakas doubles putting men on 2nd and 3rd. Then Bumgarner walks the bases loaded w/NO outs BUT gets the next 2 guys to strike out and gets Hosmer to ground out. End of the inning and disaster averted for the Giants.

Top of the 4th, the Giants get Shields in trouble again. Pence doubles and gets to 3rd on a wild pitch. Belt walks. Morse singles and Pence scores. Shields is done. Only pitches 3 full innings, gives up a run, leaves 2 men on base w/o getting anyone in the top of the 4th. Giants lead 4-0

Duffy comes in to pitch w/men on 1st & 2nd. Duffy's a starter but they are using him to get some long relief, because they really don't have any relief pitchers who can pitch more than an inning or 2. Perez puts down a sac bunt to move the runners to 2nd & 3rd. Duffy is coming in cold and still doesn't have any control. He walks Crawford -- bases loaded -- then walks Blanco to score Belt. Duffy manages to get things under control and gets the next 2 outs w/the bases still loaded. Could have been MUCH worse for KC. Giants lead 5-0.

Duffy and Bungarner pitch shut out innings through the bottom of the 6th but the Giants get to Duffy again in the top of the 7th. Blanco walks and Panik triples by hitting a ball past Aoki in right field which reaches the wall to score Blanco. Duffy is done. Collins comes in and gets Posey to line out. Panda comes up and singles to score Panik. Panda advances to 2nd on a wild pitch and Pence walks BUT Collins gets his stuff under control and gets the last 2 outs leaving 2 men on base. Giants lead 7-0.

Bumgarner is still looking good in the bottom of the 7th. Gets the 1st two hitters out but gives up a HR to Perez. Gets the last man out and his day is done. Giants lead 7-1.

Bumgarner's consecutive shutout streak in to start his WS career ends at 21 2/3 innings, which is 2nd only to Christy Mathewson, who has 28. His post-season ERA in games away from home is 0.68, which is better than Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, Mariano Rivera and Bob Gibson. F*cking incredible!!!

Collins shuts out the Giants in the top of the 8th & Fraser does the same in the top of the 9th. Lopez shuts out KC in the bottom of the 8th and Bochy brings in Strickland -- STRICKLAND, the guy who's already given up 4 HRs in the post season to lefties -- to close the game.

I understand what Bochy was trying to do. He had a 6 run lead and could take a risk on Strickland. He needed to get Stickland out there again to give him another shot at pitching, which would give him some needed play time and some confidence, as well give Casilla (the Giants normal closer) some more rest.

Nonetheless, I was still really worried but Strickland gets Cain (a righty) to strike out but then has to face the lefty Hosmer, who has already hit a couple of HRs in the playoffs. . Hosmer hits a long fly to left that looks like it's going out but it goes foul. I believe a sigh of relief. Then Stickland actually throws some off-speed stuff (instead of heat) to get Hosmer to ground out. Hoorray!!! And then, Strickland strikes out Willingham (another righty) to finish the game. Giants win 7-1.

Bumgarner couldn't hit in this game because of the DH, but he distinguished himself not only w/his pitching but w/his fielding as well. He grabbed a sharp liner that was back to him hit by Aoki in the bottom of the 1st, he fielded a dribbler back to the mound hit by Perez and took his time to throw it to Panik at 2nd for a force and then Panik threw it to 1st to complete a double play AND the Bumgarner also knocked down a broken bat liner hit back to the mound by Hosmer that he had to field and then throw while on his knees to 1st for the out. Those were great fielding plays that more than made up for his throwing error in the top of the 7th in Game 3 of the NLDS vs the Nationals.

Crawford made an error tonight but it was a tough grounder that handcuffed and then popped up on him which prevented him from even finding it. However, he made several other solid plays to make up for the error.

The huge outfield which the KC outfielders play so, well worked just as well for the Giants as it did for them. Several long fly balls that might have gone out in other parks were fielded by them near the wall, as were several KC fly balls that were fielded by Blanco and Pence.

Ishikawa (the hero of Game 5 in the NLCS) only played 3 innings and was taken out of the game in the top of the 4th so that Perez could sac bunt. Perez played the rest of the game in left but there weren't many balls hit there. Ishikawa normally stays in at least 6-7 innings, but the situation dictated the substitution by Bochy at that time.

Bumgarner's WS record is now 3-0 w/an ERA of 0.41. If the Giants take Game 2, he probably won't pitch again but will probably pitch in SF if there is a Game 5.

Hope that Peavy has his good stuff working tomorrow in Game 2. He's going against Ventura who's a hard thrower but was not that much control. The Giants are good fast ball hitters w/a .283 BA against pitchers who throw over 95 mph and, if we get to him early as we did against Shields today, the Game 2 should go to the Giants too, as long as Peavy and the bullpen can keep KC off the bases as Bumgarner was able to do tonight.

Accordingly the the game announcers, 10 out of 11 of the last World Series teams that won Game #1 also won the series. Advantage Giants.

This is the 1st game that the Royals have lost this post season. They had a lot of momentum and confidence coming into this game. The Giants have burst their bubble and we'll see in Game 2 what effect this has had on their mental toughness and confidence.

GO GIANTS!!!!!