The Giants and the Royals will battle for the World Series Championship. The Giants won the Series in 2010 and 2012. Can they win in yet another even year? As for the Royals, they last appeared in 1985 when they defeated the Cardinals four games to three. Let's look at some of the more interesting factoids as we prepare for the Series.
KANSAS CITY ROYALS
The Royals hadn't made the playoffs since 1985.
The Royals have won 11-straight postseason games.
The Royals made the World Series with a .721 OPS.
The Royals pitching staff posted a 2.93 ERA and 1.11 WHIP with a 7.36 K/9 mark.
The Royals went 65-4 when leading after six innings during the regular season. Their bullpen allowed two runs over 16 innings in the ALCS (1.13 ERA). The bullpen has a 1.80 ERA for the postseason.
The only team in the postseason with more homegrown talent than the 10 draft picks that are currently on the Royals was the Cardinals.
Thirteen teams have had a layoff of five days or more before the World Series started. Seven of the 13 went on to win the Series.
The Giants have allowed three steals in 10 games in the playoffs. The Royals have used the steal to great effect. They've swiped 13 bases in 16 tries.
Billy Butler has hit .222 with five RBIs.
Lorenzo Cain has hit .353 with four RBIs. He went 8-for-15 while scoring five runs in the ALCS.
Alex Gordon is only batting .222 with 11 strikeouts, but he's played tremendous defense. Oh, he's also sporting a .400 OBP, has hit a home and driven in nine runs.
Greg Holland saved all four games in the ALCS. The only other pitchers to have done that are Dennis Eckersley (1988 A's) and John Wetteland (1996 Yankees). He has six saves this postseason.
Eric Hosmer has killed it batting .448/.556/.759 with two homers and eight RBIs. He's finally arrived.
Salvador Perez is batting .118 with a .261 OPS. Wow, that's bad.
James Shields has a 5.63 ERA and 1.63 WHIP over three postseason starts. He must improve for the team to win the championship.
* A MLB Scouting Report on the Royals.
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
The Giants are going to their 21st World Series. Only the Yankees (40) have more.
The Giants have won 9-straight series in the postseason. The only team ever to have won more series in a row without a loss is the Yankees who won 11-straight from 1998-2001. The Giants have also won 15 of their last 17 games.
The Giants made the World Series with a .638 OPS.
The Giants pitching staff posted a 2.18 ERA and 0.95 WHIP with a 7.36 K/9 mark.
The Giants bullpen has been fantastico. Javier Lopez has gone 15 outings without allowing a run in the postseason. Santiago Casilla has gone 17 outings without allowing a run in the postseason. Jeremy Affeldt has gone 19-straight without allowing a run in the postseason. The bullpen has a 1.78 ERA for the postseason.
Bruce Bochy has wont four pennants (three with Giants, one with Padres). Every other manager with four pennant wins is in the HOF.
The Giants made with World Series without an inning pitched during the postseason from their ace (Matt Cain) or their 2-time Cy Young winner (Tim Lincecum). They also made the Series without an at-bat from their leadoff hitter and center fielder (Angel Pagan). That also means they Giants made it without their top-2 salary earners (Cain $20.8 million, Lincecum $17.0 million) and four of their top-8 (Pagan $10.25 million, Marco Scutaro $6.67 million).
Madison Bumgarner is nails. He is one of three hurlers to even have 5-straight outings in the playoffs of at least seven innings pitched and seven or fewer base runners per outing. The other two are Bob Gibson and Mike Mussina. He has a 1.42 ERA in four postseason starts this year. For his career he's posted a 2.67 ERA and 1.03 WHIP over 11 outings.
Pablo Sandoval has reached base in 23-straight games, tied with Lou Gehrig and Lance Berkman for the 6th longest mark in history.
The Giants went 243 plate appearances between homers before Joe Panik hit a homer in Game 5 of the NLCS. Their streak of 213 at-bats during that stretch if the 4th longest ever for one postseason (the 1973 Athletics went 276 at-bats).
Travis Ishikawa became the 9th player to hit a walk-off HR to clinch a postseason series and the 1st to do it in the NLCS. Here's video of the homer. Jake Peavy was a little too excited as he tried to tackle Ishikawa as he rounded hit third base. From Hunter Pence. “I don’t know if I can even remember those few second because I blacked out.”
WALKOFF HOMERUN TO CLINCH A POSTSEASON SERIES
Bill Mazeroski World Series 1960 Pirates
Chris Chambliss ALCS 1976 Yankees
Joe Carter World Series 1993 Blue Jays
Todd Pratt NLDS 1999 Mets
Aaron Boone ALCS 2003 Yankees
David Ortiz ALDS 2004 Red Sox
Chris Burke NLDS 2005 Astros
Magglio Ordonez ALCS 2006 Tigers
Travis Ishikawa NLCS 2014 Giants
Ishikawa played more games in the minors (71) than in the majors (62) in 2014.
* A MLB Scouting Report on the Giants.
2014 WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE
RAY TALKS OVER THE MATCHUP WITH RICK MORRIS OF THE FDH LOUNGE
PREDICTION: GIants in six.
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