Giants vs. Royals, 2014 World Series Game 2 results: 4 things we learned from Kansas City’s 7-2 win
A five-run sixth inning gave the Royals a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
Yordano Ventura delivered 5⅓ quality innings and Omar Infante went 2-for-3 out of the eight-hole in the lineup, with a double and a home run to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 7-2 victory in Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday.
While he might not have been an "ace," Ventura did more to live up to his nickname than James Shields, and the Royals desperately needed it. he helped himself by not walking anyone, allowing him to tiptoe through eight hits from the Giants, allowing only two runs. It was his shortest outing of the postseason, excepting his one-out relief appearance in the wild card game.
It was a back-and-forth affair until the sixth inning, as the two teams traded leads. While the Royals scored five in the sixth, there was still tension on the field as the Giants’ Hunter Strickland and Royals’ Salvador Perez participated in a verbal scuffle.
Infante hit a two-run home run as part of that five-run frame, with Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain and Billy Butler joined with him two hits on the night, powering the Royals offense.
Hitting with runners in scoring position is important
If you fell off your chair reading that sub-header, you’re forgiven. The Royals had made it hard to believe this to be the case, given how they won Games 3 & 4 of the American League Championship series without the benefit of a hit with a runner in scoring position. The Giants are no stranger to scoring runs without hits, as over one stretch during the NLCS, they managed nine runs on zero hits:
This is unreal. That makes 9 R #SFGiants scored in last 5 games on zero hits: 2 on E's by pitchers, 4 on IF outs, 1 on BB, 1 on SF, 1 on WP!
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) October 16, 2014 Even with those precedents though, both teams found the value of well-timed hits tonight, as outside of the lead-off home run from Gregor Blanco, all the runs came via hits with runners in scoring position. Billy Butler drove in Lorenzo Cain in the first, and Alcides Escobar doubled home Omar Infante in the second. The Giants evened things up on a Pablo Sandoval double, followed by a Brandon Belt double in the fourth.
Butler and Cain reprised their act in the 6th, as Butler singled off of Jean Machi, as Cain scored to take the lead. An errant pitch meant two runners in scoring position for Perez, who doubled them both home, and Infante followed with a home run. Outside of the home runs, every run that scored came from scoring position.
Scoring first doesn’t mean much
We learned it early too. Gregor Blanco's leadoff home run was the third in Giants' postseason history, with the other two coming off the bat of Angel Pagan. The previous six times the Giants scored first in these playoffs they won the game. Not so in the case of Game 2. The Royals tagged Jake Peavy for a run in the first two innings, and then opened things up in the sixth, dropping a five-spot on a quartet of Giants' pitchers. This is nothing new for Kansas City, as they'd amassed three wins in games that the opposing team scored first, before tonight.
Ned Yost (finally) knows how to use his bullpen
The oft-criticized Royals manager has shown himself to be malleable in the postseason. While he set rigid roles for his dynamic bullpen cerberus in the regular season, rarely using them outside of their allotted seventh-, eighth- and ninth-inning roles, he’s been willing to turn to Herrera in the sixth fairly often in October.
Herrera appeared in the sixth inning seven times all season. Game 2 of the World Series marked the fourth time he’s done so since October, with the Royals winning each of those games. Bruce Bochy has earned a reputation for being an adept bullpen manager, and he’s earned a ton of postseason victories. Causation? Perhaps. Correlation? Very much so. Yost mostly has a push-button bullpen at his disposal, but his willingness to use it earlier in games than he’s used to, has been a difference-maker.
What BBQ costs in KC (and some beat writers are cheapskates)
kc mayor @JeffPassan laid out 800 clams for the great ribs. will u cheapos please chip in! (& u know who i'm talkin bout)
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) October 23, 2014 See More:
