The Kansas City Royals gave the baseball fans what they wanted – a Game 7 in the World Series. Ned Yost put the game on star rookie Yordano Ventura‘s back, and Ventura did not let his team down. Royals fans would have been happy with him pitching 5 innings, but he did 2 innings better and lasted for 7, dominating the strike zone with his blazing fastball. He hit 100 mph a handful of times and he kept batters off balance by changing speeds on the fastball and throwing his off-speed pitches when hitters were not expecting it. This allowed the Royals’ elite bullpen to have an extra day of much-needed rest before Game 7. Jason Frasor and Tim Collins collected the final 6 outs, combining for 2 innings and collecting 3 strikeouts.
Ventura can thank his offense for giving him an early 7-0 lead in the 2nd inning. This is how the long second inning panned out for the Royals, where San Francisco Giants starter Jake Peavy gave up 5 earned runs in the inning. Yusmeiro Petit didn’t help ease the pain either, only lasting .2 innings while giving up 3 hits and 2 earned runs. The Royals offense was hitting everything and the balls were falling in the areas the Giants defenders were not.
| A Gordon singled to shallow center. | 0 | 0 |
| S Perez singled to right, A Gordon to third. | 0 | 0 |
| M Moustakas doubled to right, A Gordon scored, S Perez to third. | 0 | 1 |
| O Infante struck out swinging. | 0 | 1 |
| A Escobar singled to first. | 0 | 1 |
| N Aoki singled to shallow left, S Perez scored, M Moustakas to third, A Escobar to second. | 0 | 2 |
| Y Petit relieved J Peavy. | 0 | 2 |
| L Cain singled to shallow right center, M Moustakas and A Escobar scored, N Aoki to third. | 0 | 4 |
| L Cain to second on wild pitch by Y Petit. | 0 | 4 |
| E Hosmer doubled to center, N Aoki and L Cain scored. | 0 | 6 |
| B Butler doubled to deep right center, E Hosmer scored. | 0 | 7 |
| A Gordon grounded out to first, B Butler to third. | 0 | 7 |
| S Perez fouled out to third. | 0 | 7 |
| 7 Runs, 7 Hits, 0 Errors | ||
|---|---|---|
After gaining a 7-run lead, the Royals did not look back and kept the same lead until they added another run in the 3rd thanks to Lorenzo Cain’s ground rule double, which scored Omar Infante. Cain’s double made the game 8-0 which seemed out of hand for a Giants offense that could not get it done against any pitcher tonight.
Escobar doubled later during the 5th inning, scoring Infante once again, this time from first base, giving the Royals an incredible 9-0 lead.
In the 7th inning, Mike Moustakas homered to right center, giving him a postseason record for the Kansas City Royals with his 5th homer during the playoffs. Once the game reached 10-0, the Giants just wanted to get through the game so they could move on and focus onto Game 7. Peavy just did not get it done once again and put the Giants in a tough situation by playing from behind so early, and the Giants will try to bounce back on Wednesday.
Game 7 will be started by two veterans in Tim Hudson for the Giants and Jeremy Guthrie for the Royals. Hudson relies on ground balls while Guthrie is the opposite, relying on fly ball outs. The Giants will have all hands on deck from their pitching staff to compete for yet another World Series title while the Royals will have Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland fresh.
Photo Credit: Photo Credit: TAMMY LJUNGBLAD/THE KANSAS CITY STAR