The 2014 World Series was very different from the last two the Giants appeared in. In 2010 and 2012, they had home field advantage playing the first 2 games at home where they won every game. In 2014 however, they had to start on the road so it was an immediate test for them. In Game 1 with Madison Bumgarner on the mound, they easily prevailed for a 7-1 victory over Regular Season Game James and Co. But then something happened that hadn’t happened to them since 2002: they lost 2 World Series games in a row. Game 2 was tied at 2 until the Royals blew it open with a 5 run 6th, and would ultimately win 7-2. Game 3 was back home in San Francisco but Escobar ambushed Tim Hudson on the first pitch of the game, hitting a leadoff double and scoring on a Lorenzo Cain groundout. The Royals would win 3-2 so that run made all the difference. However, the Giants would would get their groove back and win the next two games to send the series back to Kansas City. But then Game 6 happened.
Game 6 was like it was played in a different universe. It was like some kid was playing a video game and was so scared to lose the World Series at home that he changed the difficulty level just to get to Game 7. Jake Peavy started and went 1.1 IP giving up 5 ER on only 42 pitches for a Game Score of 23. Meanwhile, the late Yordano Ventura threw 7 innings of 3 hit ball. It was 7-0 after 2. The best thing about Game 6 was that it would only mean 1 game and the Giants could afford to lose one. But on the next night they couldn’t. The next night had to be a W for there was no tomorrow.
Game 7
History wasn’t in the Giants favor tonight as the home team had won the last 9 straight Game 7s. The last time a road team did it was the 1979 Pirates, 35 years earlier. But road games didn’t seem to phase the Giants. In 2010 they clinched every postseason series on the road. In 2012, two of the three series were clinched in gray uniforms. This year they had to win the Wild Card game on the road, but then had the joy of knocking out the Nats and Cards at home to set up the World Series. So if they were going to win this one, it would have to be done on the road against Jeremy Guthrie.
Guthrie was pitching towards the end of a long career spent with Cleveland, Baltimore, Colorado, Kansas City, and would eventually end it with the Nats in 2017. He was never an All Star and only lead the league in categories you don’t want to lead in: losses (twice), hits given up, HRs given up (twice), and in 2014 lead the AL in hitting guys with 14 HBP. So of course he’s starting Game 7. He did, however, beat the Giants in Game 3 pitching 5 innings and giving up only 2 ER. Maybe he can repeat that performance.
He’d be matched up against Tim Hudson who was just happy to be here. Huddy would go only 1.2 innings before Bochy handed the ball to Jeremy Affeldt, making it a Jeremy vs. Jeremy ballgame. But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Let’s jump into this one.
The 2 Greatest Sac Flies In the History Of Sac Flies
Guthrie would throw a clean, 5 pitch top of the first and Hudson would navigate the top of the Royals lineup with only a walk to Aoki. So here we are in a scoreless top of the 2nd and 2012 World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval is leading it off. Remember how I said Guthrie lead the league in hitting batters in 2014? Well, he adds to it by hitting Panda on the 2nd pitch of the at bat. Let’s be real though, it barely scraped the sleeve on Pablo’s arm and he may have never even felt it. Nonetheless, he’s on first base with no outs and here’s Hunter Pence who is on fire.
Pence may as well just come to the plate with 2 strikes on him already because it seems every at bat he’s 0-2, but he’s only struck out twice in this World Series. Guthrie gets 2 quick strikes on him here but on the 0-2, he misses his spot and Pence grounds it through the 5.5 hole for a rap, and it’s 1st and 2nd no out.
This brings up Brandon Belt who Bochy elects not to bunt this time. Guthrie gets him to 2 strikes but again fails to put his guy away as Belt rips a changeup through the right side for hit! Panda has to hold up to make sure it’s not caught, but the bases are now loaded for Michael Morse.
Morse:
The last time we heard from Morse he was hitting a pinch hit HR to tie NLCS Game 5 in the 8th. Now he’s in another position to be a hero. Just can’t strike out. He fouls Guthrie’s first pitch straight back and it’s 0-1. It was a changeup. Guthrie’s been throwing good ones all night. The next pitch, however, is a fastball at 93 mph. Morse is a bit late on it but catches some barrel and sends it to deep right on a line. Aoki’s running back but he’s got a beat on it, makes the catch, spins, and throws it back in. Panda tags and scores easily and Pence moves up to 3rd on the Morse sac fly. Morse hitting it to right field was the best outcome because it allowed Pence to move up as well. If he had flied out to left there’s a good chance Pence is still on 2nd when Crawford comes up. So Morse drives in the go ahead run AND moves up the possible 2nd run while making an out. It was a short AB, but a great AB. Gets the job done in 2 different ways. Here’s Crawford.
Craw’s in no rush here. Make Guthrie work out there. Make him think about it. He takes the first pitch all the way and it’s a ball. Guthrie comes back with a changeup in the dirt and Craw takes all the way for ball 2. It seems Guthrie has lost control of that changeup that was so good in Game 3 and the first inning tonight. Guthrie gets a new ball and rubs it up, looks in for the sign. The 2-0 pitch is a 92 mph fastball right down the middle and Craw’s all over it. He sends Lorenzo Cain to deep left center field who makes the catch. Pence tags and scores easily and it’s 2-0 Giants on 2 productive outs!
Juan Perez will then strike out on 3 pitches but the Giants have done some damage early and it’s huge to score first in a Game 7, especially when you’re on the road.
The Royals Make It Scary
So the Giants have just given Tim Hudson a 2 run lead as he takes the mound in the bottom of the 2nd. The Royals have to feel deflated and that they have no chance now right? Well, Billy Butler will lead off and drive the 2nd pitch he sees into center field for a lead off hit. Then on the next pitch Alex Gordon drives one into the right center field gap to score Butler from 1st and it’s now 2-1 Giants with the tying run on 2nd and no outs! Then on the next pitch Hudson drills Salvador Perez right above his left knee and he has to take a few minutes to shake it off. This, as it turns out, gives Jeremy Affeldt more time to get ready in the bullpen. Salvy ends up limping down to first base with his trainer and Ned Yost as Mike Moustakas digs into the box. So after it took the Giants 15 pitches to score 2 runs, the Royals have now got one of those runs back and have the tying and go ahead runs on base after only 4 pitches from Hudson.
Moustakas is probably thinking about crushing one into the waterfalls right now. Hudson’s first pitch to him is way in the dirt, ball 1. Hudson’s lost it and he’s only thrown 24 pitches. The 1-0 is lined to Juan Perez in left, who initially turned the wrong way on the ball, turns back, and makes the catch. Gordon tags from 2nd and Perez makes a fairly great throw to Panda at 3rd but it’s a bit late and the tying run is now only 90 feet away (this wouldn’t be the last time Gordon would reach 3rd base in this game).
Two pitches later, Omar Infante would line an 88 mph splitter into center field but it’s right at Blanco who makes the catch. Gordon tags and scores and this game is tied. The Royals are jumping all over Hudson as no batter has seen more than 2 pitches this inning. This trend continues as Escobar swings at the first pitch and lines one past Panda into left field to ends Hudson’s night, and season.
Jeremy Affeldt would enter the game and get Nori Aoki to groundout on, you guessed it, 2 pitches, and the Giants were out of the inning. But it was an odd inning. The bottom of the 2nd looked like this:
2 pitchers, 7 batters, 1 hit by pitch, 3 hits, 2 runs, 11 pitches.
Angels In The Infield
In the box score, the bottom of the 3rd looked like this:
Single, Ground Ball Double Play, Groundout.
But there was a bit more to it than that. It was a 2-2 ball game and Jeremy Affeldt was back out there trying to get 3 more outs for Bruce Bochy. Lorenzo Cain lead off with a hell of an 8 pitch at bat, ripping a single to right field to cap it off. This brings Eric Hosmer to the plate. Known more for his glove, Hosmer hit .270 in 2014 with only 9 HRs. But this was a big spot. The go ahead run was on base with no outs and the heart of their order is up.
Hosmer fouls off Affeldt’s first pitch for a quick 0-1. Cain is a threat to steal so Affeldt checks on him twice to the joy of the KC fans. Now Jeremy comes set as Cain takes a big lead. He’s not running and Hosmer hits a hot grounder back up the middle. Joe Panik (#ForeverGiant) takes 2 steps and dives to his right, full body extended, and snags it! He belly flops on the ground and with Cain running there’s no time to get his throwing hand on the ball so he flips it out of his glove right to Crawford at 2nd. Craw catches it above his head to his left, squares his body up to first base and flings a bullet to Belt.
Hosmer, who’s never ran up the line faster in his life, dives head first into the bag. First base umpire Eric Cooper calls him safe and for now it’s an incredible 4-6 to get Lorenzo Cain off the bases. The umpires will look at this one back in New York and after a 2 minute 57 second delay they call Hosmer out at first and it’s now an incredible 6-4-3 double play! Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford with the turn of the year when it mattered most! If Panik took his time to exchange that ball from his glove to his throwing hand, they wouldn’t have got anyone on that play. Instead it goes down as perhaps the greatest double play in World Series history.
Billy Butler would then ground out to Crawford to end the inning but not before squeezing 9 more pitches out of Affeldt.
Panda Makes Something Happen
This brings us to the top of the 4th and who else would be leading it off but Pablo Sandoval. Guthrie is still in there but he’s got a short leash. On the 2-1 pitch Panda chops one up the middle to Infante’s right. He fields with his bare hand at the edge of the outfield grass but slips as he makes his throw, spiking the ball into the ground and falling down. The ball gets to Hosmer at first but it’s just too late as Sandoval beats it out with his very famous speed.
This brings Hunter Pence to the plate and, you guessed it, takes a strike. The 0-1 is inside and it’s not 0-2 to Pence. A ball unheard of! Guthrie’s 1-1 to Hunter is flipped into center field and Cain, who was playing very deep, charges in for this one but there’s no chance for him and he plays it on a hop. Pence is 2-2 tonight and that’s his 12th hit in this World Series (he would bat .444 with 3 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 7 Runs).
So the Giants are in business again with guys on 1st and 2nd and nobody out. This is where the play of the inning happens. Belt’s at the plate and Ned Yost is leaving Guthrie out there with the run that would win the World Series on 2nd base. Guthrie gets him to 1-1 and on the 3rd pitch Belt hits a high fly ball to left. Gordon was playing shallow with the lefty hitting and has to track back a ways. He ends up catching it above his head, reaching across his body, falling away from the infield. Perennial speedster Pablo Sandoval sees all this coming together and decides to tag up! Gordon unleashes a big throw, air mailing his cutoff man. It one hops to Moustakas at 3rd but Panda slides in headfirst ahead of the tag and it’s another productive tag up for the Giants!
We would later learn that Hunter Pence played a big role in that play. He was on first base and ran all the way out to 2nd where Pablo was tagging up. He began to shout something like, “Tag up! Make something happen! Be a hero!” Then Gordon caught it sending Pence back to first base as Panda was off to the races. Great cheerleading by Pence, and a great at bat by Belt to move up the run that would win the World Series.
Morse
Micheal Morse was the DH in this game and had already contributed to the 1st run of this game. Due to fantastic base running by Sandoval, Morse has another opportunity to come up huge. But the soft throwing Guthrie is done for the night and Ned Yost has brought in Kelvin Herrera.
In Morse’s first at bat he was a bit late on a fastball and lined it into right field for a sac fly. With Herrera in, he was going to see a lot more fastballs. Just faster fastballs. Guthrie topped out at 93, but Herrera was known to hit three digits. His first pitch is at 97 and Morse chops it foul. The 0-1 is 99 mph up out of the zone but Morse fouls it back as well. Another 0-2 count on the Giants. But that seems to be when they thrive. Morse steps out of the box for a breath as Royals fans try to get excited. Perhaps they’ve learned that when your teams supplies you with white rally towels, you’re going to lose.
Morse digs back in and Herrera comes set and deals another fastball. Another one at 99 and Morse gets jammed, breaking his bat, but because his DNA is partially from Paul Bunyan he fists it out into shallow right field for a hit!
Panda scores easily and Pence comes all the way around to 3rd! Another 2 strike hit for the Giants and more great situational hitting. The Giants were doing the little things and it was going to win them the World Series.
The Greatest 5 Inning Save In History
Jeremy Affedlt would get through the 4th inning unscathed and after a scoreless top of the 5th, Brucy Bochy signaled for the greatest pitcher in World Series history, Mason Saun- er, um, oh yeah, Madison Bumgarner. Only three days earlier Bumgarner had thrown 117 pitches in a complete game shutout of the Royals at home in San Francisco. Now he’s on the mound in the 5th inning of Game 7, and is probably going to be asked to finish this one.
I imagine the Royals watching Bumgarner walk in from the right field bullpen as if he was some lone bounty hunter from Red Dead Redemption II, coming into town to take down the gang of bad guys. Royals fans shutting their windows and locking their children in the cellar.
Due up for the Royals are the 9-1-2 spots in the lineup with Omar Infante to lead it off. Bum’s first pitch is a ball up and away. Then he finds the zone with a strike on the inside, Infante taking all the way. On the 3rd pitch Omar lines one into right field and the Royals have their leadoff man on. Royals fans think they have a chance now and are as loud as they’ve been all night.
Now the lineup rolls over with Escobar. He would lay down a sac bunt on a 2-0 pitch and the Royals now have the tying run on 2nd with 1 out. Here’s Nori Aoki who’s known for his speed and his swing has shades of Ichiro in it. After falling behind 2-0 Bum gets him to line out to Juan Perez who made a really nice catch running to his right. That ball was slicing away from him but with his speed was able to get there and there’s 2 outs. That’s exactly why he was starting over Ishikawa. After a good battle with Lorenzo Cain, Bum gets him to strike out on a high fastball and he’s out of the inning.
After that, Bumgarner bared down and was his absolute unhitable self. In the 6th, 7th, and 8th he would face the minimum, giving up no hits and no walks on 37 pitches. A true horse.
The 9th
After Michael Morse’s go ahead single in the 4th this game started to fly by. There were 5 total hits over the last 5 innings as pitching took over. It was still 3-2 Giants as Bumgarner took the mound in the bottom of the 9th. He was efficient, only at 52 pitches, and you knew he had over 100 in him.
The first guy to greet him was Eric Hosmer. Royals fans are all standing now, doing anything they can to help get a rally going against this man-beast from Hell. After two pitches it’s 2-0 to Hosmer and the crowd thinks Bum’s finally lost it. But to their dismay, he finds the zone on the 2-0 and Hosmer takes all the way. The 2-1 is fouled back and now Bum’s back in the count 2-2. The Royals have so much speed on the bench it’s important to keep Hosmer off the bases here. Now the 2-2 is a fastball up and Hosmer swings and misses for the strike out, and there’s 1 away in the 9th.
Next is Billy Butler, the longest tenured Royal. He’s 1-3 tonight. On the 1-1 Bum gets him to pop it up on the right side. Belt drifts into foul territory and makes the play with plenty of room and now the Giants are 1 out away from their 3rd championship in 5 years.
But now it’s Alex Gordon and things are about to get exciting. The first pitch from Bum is a fastball right down the middle and Gordon fouls it back. Bumgarner actually got pretty lucky with that one but no one will remember it. Now things get crazy. Buster calls for the offspeed low and away and Bum puts it there, but Gordon is able to get good wood on it and he flips it into shallow right center field. Blanco comes charging in but decides too late that he can’t get there and the ball skips past him! Perez wasn’t really backing him up, instead was next to him, probably hoping he was about to hug him. Instead, he finds himself sprinting after the baseball that’s rolling all the way to the wall. He finally reaches it up against the fence but then drops it and it rolls 6 feet away from him!
Meanwhile Gordon is around 2nd base and thinking about an inside the parker to tie the game! Perez finally gets the ball back in and it short hops Craw who makes a great play himself just to hold Gordon at 3rd.
Literally nobody saw this coming and this game has a completely different feel to it. Royals fans who couldn’t bare to watch when Gordon hit that ball are now jumping around in mad celebration. They’re just forgetting one thing, that didn’t win this game nor tie it. It was just a 2 out single and an error and it’s still 3-2 Giants. It does, however, put a ton of pressure on the defense because now any mistake ties this game up.
What’s more is that this brings Salvador Perez to the plate who already homered off Bum back in Game 1. So he’s literally the scariest guy that could be in the box right now. The first pitch to him is a swing and a miss on a 92 mph fastball, strike one. Scary. The 0-1 is another fastball up but it’s a ball and we’re even at 1-1. Bum’s pace is a quick one despite the weight of this situation. Most pitchers try to use up as much time as possible but Bum’s just wants to end this thing.
The 1-1 is another fastball up high and it’s swung at and missed for strike 2! Salvy wasn’t close on that one. Giants are one strike away now. Tense moment. The 1-2 is way high again and it’s a ball. Bum’s at 66 pitches out of the bullpen now. The 2-2 is high and in on the hands and Salvy fouls it back, lucky to get a piece of it.
In 2010 Brian Wilson struck out Nelson Cruz with a high fastball. In 2012 Sergio Romo struck out Miggy with a fastball. Now Bumgarner will try to add Salvador Perez to this short list.
Royals fans all standing, cheering, trying to jinx the Giants’ ace. He looks into Posey who wants to keep attacking up and in. Gordon takes his lead at 3rd. Bum comes set. Looks in. Deals.
The 68th pitch from Bumgarner is a 93 mph fastball that barrels in to Salvador. He swings, popping it up, and this one’s playable. Sandoval, who was playing almost at the edge of the outfield grass comes running in to foul ground. He passes Alex Gordon, standing in dismay. He passes through the coach’s box and over the World Series logo on the grass in front of the Giants’ dugout. Then, just before the edge of the warning track, the ball falls into his glove and Sandoval falls to the ground with his hands in the air!
Buster and Bum share a hug on the mound as Buster buries his head in Bumgarner’s chest. The guys in the dugout burst onto the field, each trying to hug the greatest World Series pitcher in the history of major league baseball.
No one may be happier than Gregor Blanco and Juan Perez who were probably praying to the baseball gods to get them out of this game with a parade scheduled. The intensity of this game was so overwhelming that when the final out was made, the emotions were that much higher. It wasn’t like in 2012 when they swept the Tigers. There was room for error as they were up 3 games to none. This was Game 7 and the tying run was on 3rd base in a 1 run game. It was almost made up. It was absolutely nerve wracking as a fan as all you could do was watch. My emotions were so high that I had to cry for 5 minutes. An incredible game with a science fiction ending.
A Great At Bat
A tough decision for this game too. Pence had 2 hits, Crawford had a clutch sac fly. However, Michael Morse got the scoring going with a sac fly himself, then had a huge 2 strike base hit off a Kelvin Herrera 99 mph fastball that ended up driving in the winning run of the World Series. He saw 3 pitches, all for strikes, and each one harder to hit than the last. If he doesn’t get it done, maybe we’re playing extras and Bumgarner ends up throwing 110 pitches into the 13th! But Morse came through, and for that reason wins tonight’s award.
Odd Stats
Jeremy Affeldt’s 2.1 innings made it 22 consecutive scoreless postseason innings for him. The 3rd longest all time for a reliever. It was also the longest outing of his postseason career and longest outing since 2012.
The Panik-Crawford double play review was the first overturned call in World Series history.
Pence was 7-12 (.583) with 2 strikes in the World Series.
This was the first Game 7 in history when neither starter lasted more than 3.1 innings pitched.
Bumgarner’s last relief appearance was Game 6 of the 2010 NLCS in Philadelphia.
Bumgarner threw 291 pitches over 52.2 innings in the postseason.
Next Blog: 2016 Wild Card Game – March 20, 2020
Ten. Twelve. Fourteen. 
Wow, I’m speechless! You brought this titanic struggle to life, vividly. Thanks!
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