San Francisco
Giants’ starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner in action in the first inning
against Kansas City Royals. Photograph: Pool Photo/USA Today SportsKansas City Royals vowed to bounce back after the San
Francisco Giants brought their perfect post-season to an emphatic end
with a 7-1 win in Tuesday’s World Series opener at the Kauffman Stadium.Giants’ starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner, the MVP of the
National League Championship Series, delivered a dominating seven
innings of work and Hunter Pence slammed a two-run homer in the first
inning that pushed the Royals into an early hole that they were unable
to claw out of.
The Giants struck quickly against Shields with five hits in the opening frame, including a two-run shot from Pence and an RBI-double from Pablo Sandoval to lead 3-0.
In the third, Bumgarner worked his way out of a jam after an error by shortstop Brandon Crawford and a double by Mike Moustakas put runners on second and third with none out.
“That is one of my favourite things to be able to do in baseball, to work through a situation like that,” said Bumgarner. The 25-year-old struck out Alcides Escobar and contact hitter Nori Aoki and then got Eric Hosmer to ground out to snuff the threat without a run.
Pence led off the fourth with a double and scored on a line drive single to centre from Michael Morse that chased Shields from the game.
The reliever Danny Duffy issued a bases loaded walk to Gregor Blanco to push across another Giants run to make it 5-0. The Giants padded the lead in the seventh with Joe Panik and Sandoval driving in runs before Kansas City finally got on the scoreboard off Bumgarner in the bottom of the inning.
Salvador Pérez homered over the wall in left, the solo shot ending Bumgarner’s post-season record of 32 and two-thirds scoreless innings pitched on the road.
“Tonight, that was the last thing on my mind,” Bumgarner said about the streak. “We’re up 7-0, so I’m just trying to compete and go after guys and be aggressive.”
Game two of the best-of-seven series is on Wednesday in Kansas City.
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