Giants beat Royals in Game 7, capture 3rd World Series in 5 years

Pence came up big in the World Series, registering a hit in every game while scoring seven runs and driving in five runs to help the Giants win the series. As for Hudson, he pitched two games and started in the decisive Game 7 while allowing five earned runs over 7⅓ innings.

Somehow, Pence and Hudson managed to get some college football rivalry chants going in the Giants’ victory parade on Friday. Hudson started it by yelling Auburn’s famed “War Eagle” chant while both players were addressing the crowd.

Nope. He went to a softball field and smiled a lot.

Steps to being a Royals legend: 1. Do what Yordano Ventura did in the World Series. 2. Do things like this. Fine work, Yordano Ventura.

Now, it’s time for their long-suffering fans to party.

The Giants’ championship parade is expected to trudge through 1½ miles of downtown San Francisco in conditions that are being described as potentially “uncomfortable,” according to the National Weather Service (via the San Jose Mercury News). That probably won’t stop a crowd that organizers anticipate could reach 1 million on Halloween.

The City by the Bay’s streets will be filled with orange and black on the perfect day for such attire. The Halloween parade, which will travel along a 1½-mile stretch on Market and McAllister streets, begins at 3 p.m. ET and could be subject to cold, rainy conditions.

The parade will occur rain or shine, however, and is expected to last about two hours, with the final portion taking place at City Hall. There, current and former Giants players, team executives and local dignitaries are expected to speak as part of a wide array of entertainment.

The club’s championship parade will make a 1½-mile trek from the intersection of Market and Steuart, continuing west on Market before turning right onto McAllister. From there, the cavalcade of streetcars, buses and floats will head to Civic Center Plaza, where Giants players and staff will be joined by local dignitaries for a gathering on the steps of City Hall.

Here’s a map of the route:

Daniel Bryan knows a little something about underdog status. Nice to see him rooting -- all the way to the end -- for the team that adopted his signature catchphrase.

(h/t For The Win)

The New York Times went to North Carolina to talk to Madison Bumgarner’s father after Game 7 of the World Series. The article and interview begin with Kevin Bumgarner opening his door after midnight by yelling “Wooooooooooo.”

Things only get better from there. Some key highlights:

The shots. The music. It’s goosebumps time.

Hell yeah, E40 knows what’s up. The two people behind home plate who were wearing orange have to stick together, after all.

And if you were wondering just how great E40’s seats actually were, here’s how great:

The Royals’ run to the World Series was a fantastic story, bringing joy to a fan base that hasn’t had much of it for almost 30 years. It revitalized them and restored their faith in a franchise that had become a joke. Dayton Moore’s “process” took a lot longer than he or anyone else anticipated, but it’s hard to argue with him when the team he put together came within two runs of winning the whole damn thing.

All series long, Fox’s announcers lauded the Royals for creating a new paradigm for success. For realizing they didn’t have to hit home runs to win, and for being true to themselves: Most of us are aware that that’s a load of bull. If the Royals had been capable of hitting more home runs, they would have wanted to. Implicit in this argument about the Royals’ paradigm of speed and defense is the assumption that they didn’t just get lucky. That sounds harsher than it’s supposed to, as fans have an aversion to accepting that luck had anything to do with it, but every playoff run needs luck. The Royals were a good baseball team -- let’s not take anything away from their fantastic run, or come off as trolling the day after their run ended at the left arm of Madison Bumgarner. However, it’s abundantly clear that they benefitted greatly from players getting hot at the right times, and from a pitching staff that almost never stumbled.

(h/t our Giants blog, McCovey Chronicles)

So the Giants were as old-school as a 2014 team could possibly be. The Royals weren’t old-school; they were just a light-hitting team that stole some bases. What was praised as a strength was actually a weakness. It was the result of poor planning, not a choice, and they got to the seventh game of the World Series in spite of it, not because of it. Nothing can diminish what the Royals accomplished in ending their 29-year postseason drought, but in the world’s eagerness to find a storyline, it missed the point.

Both managers showed a kind of linear thinking in this World Series: Keep everything that’s working, throw out everything that’s not, never mind dancing with the one what brung ya. Well, except for Hunter Strickland. If there’s a downside to limiting one’s own options that way, it’s that many decisions take on an air of self-fulfilling prophecy.

The voice of the Giants got to call the final out of a World Series championship for the third time in five years.

Every time someone wins a trophy, some middle manager at a sponsor company gets to present somebody with an award. This is how sports work. We do not know why.

However, we can’t recall seeing somebody quite as shook as Chevy Guy. He stumbled and bumbled and sweated and said that the new Chevy Colorado has “technology and stuff.” And everybody on Twitter made fun of him.

Things didn’t work out as the majority hoped, with San Francisco eventually taking home the Commissioner’s Trophy once again, but the Royals have nothing to be ashamed of. The last time they were in the playoffs, a team only needed eight victories to win a World Series -- the Royals picked up 11, and played well enough to even get that chance to begin with. Finishing second is often viewed as a consolation prize in sports, the first among losers and all that, but Royals fans know that nothing is guaranteed and you don’t know when you’ll be able to even see your team in this situation again. The end result was defeat, but there was much more to that idea than in the 28 seasons that came before.

The future remains bright, albeit Shields-less, and 2014 could eventually be remembered as the start of something bigger. It’s still a little difficult to comprehend the Royals as contenders, even now following the conclusion of a seven-game World Series, but if they make the right off-season moves once again, maybe it’s something we’ll all have to get used to. The fact that is even a possibility shows how far the Royals have come in the last year.

Here’s a look at the play in pictures:

But ... had Gordon gone home, would he have been safe? It would have made for incredible television, that much is for sure. Upon closer investigation, it sure seems like Gordon would have been toast.

Royals fans should -- and do -- feel proud of their team’s miraculous run even after a nail-biting World Series Game 7 ended in defeat, and a big “Let’s go Royals” chant broke out in Kauffman Stadium moments after the final out:

That’s a strong farewell from a fanbase that was so fun to root along with throughout Kansas City’s wild postseason run. Doesn’t mean the narrow loss was any less deflating. You can practically hear the stadium deflate on the final out:

The 25-year-old left-hander punctuated his Fall Classic with five scoreless innings in relief in Game 7 on just two days rest, including retiring 13 batters in a row at one point.

This season, Bumgarner established himself as arguably one of the greatest World Series pitchers in baseball history. The 25-year-old left-hander has given up just one run in five career games in the Fall Classic. He struck out 31 batters and walked only five in 36 total innings in those games. Bumgarner’s 0.25 ERA in the World Series is the lowest in history among pitchers with at least 20 innings.

While details have yet to be finalized, Giants officials and the city have a plan in place. According to the report, the focus of the parade will be on Market Street and lead to the Civic center. As of now, the parade is set to start at the intersection of Main and Market Street, according to CBS.

The final details, including when the parade will start, are still yet to be finalized. The report mentions a possible rainstorm on Halloween that could have an impact. CBS reports the parade could begin around 12 p.m. PT and end with players and others giving speeches at city hall some four hours later. Regardless of when is starts, the celebratory parade will be streamed live online with a feed from KPIX.

Here are some things we learned while all of the above was going on:

Salvador Perez appeared in 146 games at catcher this season, starting 143 of them. He broke the record for innings caught in a single season in the fifth inning of the game, this following being hit by a pitch in the thigh in the second.

The Giants have won nine straight postseason series — 10, if counting the 2014 NL Wild Card Game — including World Series wins in 2010, 2012 and now 2014.