Kansas City Royals Might Benefit From Giants’ Luck
Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
NLCS Game 3: Giants 5 – Cardinals 4 (10 innings)
This game reminds me a lot of the Royals Game 1 with Baltimore in the ALCS. The Giants jumped out to a big 4-0 lead in the first inning but then went 16 batters before getting another runner on base. During the course of the next 6 innings, though, the Cardinals fought their way back into the game, tying it in the 7th on a home run by power hitting CF Randal Grichuk who came into the post season with 3 HR on the year.
Fortunately for San Francisco, the Cardinals seemed intent on handing them the game after forcing extra innings. After working a lead-off walk, the Giants proceeded to put on a bunting clinic that somehow resulted in a base hit (at this point please note that the use of italics very much indicates sarcasm).
Enter reliever Randy Choate’s worst nightmare. In a single play that he’ll be reliving for the rest of his life, Choate managed to commit two throwing errors giving the Giants the walk-off run in the 10th and a 2-1 lead in the series. All the solid post-first inning pitching went to waste and the Cardinals lost the game, much more than SF won it.
To the Giants credit, though, starter Tim Hudson settled down after his first inning batting practice, eventually pitching 6.1 innings and scattering seven hits to go along with the four earned runs. Hudson is currently slated to start game three in San Francisco on Friday after a week and a half of rest.
Why do we care about this game?
If KC expects to pull out this series, it’s very likely that they will have to play from behind for more than an inning…
Simply put, the Giants stole this game. Yes, I realize eventual championship run has an element of luck involved, but this was definitely a display of Cardinal ineptitude rather than Giant dominance. And as I mentioned before, there’s no part of me that expects the Royals to duplicate this kind of buffoonery on the mound with the game on the line.
That being said, SF did display an ability to get out to an early lead (like the Royals) as well as a knack for weathering a rally (also like the Royals). That sort of moxie goes a long way in winning your third World Series in five years. If KC expects to pull out this series, it’s very likely that they will have to play from behind for more than an inning, but the Cardinals have shown that a comeback against the Giants can happen. Hopefully for KC they’ll actually complete the comeback if and when the time comes.
One last thing to note is that Hudson was on the receiving end of a 5-0 loss to Kansas City in August. While this game represents most of the Royals experience against Hudson, they have to feel pretty good knowing the last time they faced him they came up with 9 hits including 5-8 with RISP and 3 two-out RBIs. I know, I know, those three games aren’t supposed to count, but come on, they kind of do.