Sports

Madison Bumgarner finishes off the best pitching performance ever in a World Series, giving the San Francisco Giants their third World Series win in five years

Three World Series titles in five years? Yes, let’s give the San Francisco Giants their due. The Giants somewhat quietly won the 2010 and 2012 Fall Classics, beating the Texas Rangers in five games the first time, then sweeping the Detroit Tigers two years ago. But now that they’ve beaten the Kansas City Royals in a compelling Series that went the distance — the Giants nipped the Royals 3-2 in a nail-biting Game 7 — it’s time we revere the Giants, like we revere the late-90s New York Yankees, or even all those Atlanta Braves teams that won year after year, even though they only won a single World Series. Send Giants manager Bruce Bochy to the Hall of Fame.

Going into the 2014 World Series, many analysts dubbed the San Francisco-Kansas City matchup the “small-ball” series. And although there were some decidedly big-ball scores, like Kansas City putting up 10 runs in Game 6, and San Francisco scoring 11 in a Game 4 win, Game 7 fit the script. The Giants executed small-ball to perfection: they scored two runs on two sacrifice flies in the second inning. In the fourth, with the score tied at 2-2, big Pablo Sandoval advanced to third on a flyout to left field — left field! Pablo Sandoval! — and then scored the deciding run on a Michael Morse single.

And oh, how the Giants pitched. Well, starter Tim Hudson only lasted 1 2/3 innings, but Jeremy Affeldt, normally a late-inning guy, stopped any bleeding. Then came Madison Bumgarner in the fifth. No pitcher in history had a World Series like Bumgarner. He gave up one run in Game 1. He pitched a shutout on Sunday night. And here, on two days rest, Bumgarner had five more shutout innings in him. This, in an era of specialization, when pitchers just aren’t supposed to stretch their arms like Bumgarner did. Nuts, really. Crazy.

Bumgarner got some help in his first inning. Omar Infante hit a single to right, and Royals manager Ned Yost had the next batter, Alcides Escobar, sacrifice bunt on a 2-0 count. Bumgarner looked so shaky, but the charity out seemed to settle him down. Yosted.

And oh, how the Giants fielded. After Escobar’s bunt, Norichika Aoki sliced a line drive down the left field line. It smelled like a double. But Juan Perez was positioned perfectly, and he made a beautiful running catch. And two innings earlier, with a man on first and no outs, Giants second baseman Joe Panik dove to catch a grounder, flipped it to shortstop Brandon Crawford with his glove, and Crawford threw it on to first. The ump said Eric Hosmer was safe, but then after a replay review that should not have lasted as long as it did, Hosmer was ruled out. An unforgettable double play.

But it’s Bumgarner who we’ll always remember from this World Series. After Bumgarner retired 14 straight Royals, Alex Gordon hit a fly ball to center with two out in the bottom of the ninth: it tricked by San Francisco’s Gregor Blanco, who misjudged it. Perez chased it down at the wall, then bobbled it. Was Gordon going to tie up Game 7 on a ninth-inning, two-out inside-the-park home run? No, but he got all the way to third.

But then Bumgarner got Salvador Perez to hit a pop up in foul territory, off third: Sandoval squeezed it and fell to the ground. Giants win. Unforgettable ending. Unforgettable pitcher. Unforgettable team.

San Francisco wins its third championship in five seasons

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — Madison Bumgarner pitched five innings of near-perfect relief and the San Francisco Giants held off the Kansas City Royals 3-2 Wednesday night in Game 7 of the World Series for their third championship in five seasons.

With both starters chased early, this became a matchup of bullpens. And no one stood taller than the 6-foot-5 Bumgarner, who added to his postseason legacy with a third victory this Series.

After Gregor Blanco misplayed Alex Gordon’s drive for a single and two-base error, Bumgarner got Salvador Perez to pop foul to third baseman Pablo Sandoval for the final out.

The Giants ended a Series streak that had seen home teams win the last nine Game 7s. San Francisco took this pairing of wild-card teams after earning titles in 2012 and 2010.

Pitching on two days’ rest after his shutout in Game 5, Bumgarner entered in the fifth with a 3-2 lead. After giving up a leadoff single to Omar Infante, he shut down the Royals.

Forget about the starting pitchers: The deciding game of the World Series may rest on the arms of Kansas City's bullpen trio and San Francisco's ace in relief

The Kansas City Royals are one game away from winning the World Series.

You know that baseball has had a spectacular postseason if you can write that sentence with a straight face. A franchise that for so many years wasn’t worth thinking about, that represented the big-market/small-market chasm that ruptured the game after the 1994 baseball strike, is really that close to a championship. You might not like Bud Selig, who is retiring as baseball’s commissioner early next year. And his baby, revenue redistribution from the richer teams to poorer ones like Kansas City, might not be a tonic for the Royals and their small-market brethren, as he’d like fans to believe. But those extra dollars haven’t hurt Kansas City. And if Selig hands out his last World Series trophy to the Royals, you’ve got to admit, that’s one hell of a way for him to go out.

Since 1979, nine World Series have gone the distance to a seventh game. In that time, no home team has lost a Game 7. So besides any residual good vibes from Tuesday night’s 10-0 Game 6 blowout of the Giants, the Royals have a bit of history on their side. The starting pitchers Wednesday are Jeremy Guthrie for Kansas City, and Tim Hudson for San Francisco. But if fans get lucky, the starters won’t have much of an impact on the game. No, for this game to be a classic, it needs to come down to a bullpen duel between Kansas City’s excellent—and rested—trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland, and Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco’s dominant (but not quite as rested) starting pitcher who will be available in the pen tonight. Bumgarner totally shut down the Royals in Game 1 and Game 5. Can he make like Randy Johnson in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, and provide spot relief duty in the series-clinching game?

It’s only fitting for a small-ball series to come down to late-inning pitching.

Game 7s are all too rare in baseball. This is just the second World Series to go the distance since 2002. The Royals aren’t likely to win again easily. The Giants are going for their third title in five seasons: They have a dynasty at stake. The teams are too evenly-matched. From the beginning, pundits said this series had seven games written all over it, and for once, the pundits were correct.

Kansas City, and its bullpen fireballers, just need to close it out.

The former baseball star was reportedly cleaning his handgun when it went off, taking out most of his left middle finger

Game 7 of the 2014 World Series started before Game 6 could find the door

KANSAS CITY — Eric Hosmer was asked how it feels to force Game 7 of the World Series, and what that feels like, and could he describe how it feels and explain his feelings, and nobody seemed to notice the bucket. It was at the Royals’ first baseman’s feet. It is silver. It sits between Hosmer’s locker and Terrance Gore’s. It holds three bottles of champagne and a bottle of Johnnie Walker. People have been sending liquor throughout this postseason. Hosmer has been saving it for the end.

The end is hours away.

Giants-Royals, Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, Wednesday night. If this doesn’t make you tingle, at least a little, then you have no use for baseball and probably shouldn’t be allowed to vote next week.

The anticipation began earlier than usual; in a sense, Game 7 of the 2014 World Series started before Game 6 could find the door. This is what happens when the home team, trailing the series 3-2, puts up seven runs in the second inning, as the Royals did. Everybody starts thinking about tomorrow night. Royals fans celebrated without worry. Giants fans threw out Game 6 like a piece of damaged fruit, knowing they could immediately reach for the next one.

Mostly, the managers knew they wouldn’t have to use their best relievers in Game 6, and that is one of many reasons this Game 7 is shaping up to be an epic. The Royals have a rested Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland lurking in the bullpen. The Giants have starter Madison Bumgarner, who could finish one of the best postseasons ever with some relief dominance on two days rest. Bumgarner doesn’t just have the Royals’ number. He has their bank accounts and e-mail passwords, and he changes the code on their garage-door openers because it amuses him.

With every Game 7 strike, each team will get a little closer to a seemingly unsolvable pitching force. When Hosmer was asked about the possibility of facing the new Mr. Octob(umgarn)er, he said, “Hopefully we have a lead before we get to him. That’s all I can say.” You can be sure the Giants are thinking the same thoughts about Herrera, Davis and Holland.

It should come down to those pitchers, throwing noise and fury, and that would be a nice change. What is worth saying about Game 6? Giants starter Jake Peavy had a rough go, which is not surprising because he has quietly been one of the worst postseason performers in all of sports. (Peavy now has a 7.98 playoff ERA, astounding for a guy who won a Cy Young award.) The Royals are resilient, but we knew that, too. They were assumed dead in their Wild-Card game against the A’s until they get up and punched the coroner in the face.

Hosmer said he was hanging on every pitch, regardless of the score, because of the stakes. He even hit one after calling timeout (the Kauffman Stadium crowd was so loud, he didn’t realize the TO was granted), then hit one that counted, giving him the rare at-bat when he was 2-for-1, for a perfect 2.000 batting average.

That was a fitting moment in an unusual series. This has been a sequence of lopsided games between evenly matched teams. The winning margin was at least five runs in five of the six games, yet the Giants have scored 27 runs in this Series and the Royals have scored 25, and those numbers would be probably be dead-even if the Giants had let Hunter Strickland pitch to two more batters. Each team has scored in double-digits once and been shut out once.

Hosmer said he “wouldn’t mind a lopsided one,” but this World Series deserves better than that, and it sure feels like we’re going to get it.

World Series Games 7 are rare treats. Baseball has only had one since 2002: the Cardinals-Rangers tilt in 2011, which had a Cardinals-have-got-this feel the whole way because St. Louis had won Game 6 in preposterous, dramatic fashion, and teams that lose games like that rarely recover. (The Rangers actually took a 2-0 lead to start Game 7, but it evaporated by the end of the first inning.) Game 7 in 2002 had the same feel to it — the Giants blew a 5-0 lead in Game 6 and seemed destined to lose Game 7 in Anaheim, and they did.

But the three World Series Games 7 before that were among the most famous games in baseball history. There was Luis Gonzalez’s broken-bat Series-winning single against Mariano Rivera in 2001. There was Edgar Renteria’s walk-off single for the Marlins against Cleveland in 1997, which Hosmer watched from the stands in Miami. And there was Jack Morris’ 10-inning shutout against John Smoltz and the Braves in 1991.

Home teams usually win, but that’s not guaranteed. Game 6 losers usually lose Game 7, but that probably doesn’t apply here, because it’s not like the Giants lost in excruciating fashion, and with titles in 2010 and 2012, they don’t carry a huge burden for their city.

Nobody knows who the hero will be this time. Nobody knows who will have a bat in his hand with runners on-base and the championship at stake, or who will be on the mound. That’s the beauty of baseball. We just know that Hosmer will either open that alcohol and enjoy it forever, or stand and answer questions next to the saddest little bucket in America.

This article originally appeared on SI.com

23-year-old rookie Yordano Ventura allowed three hits over seven innings for his first World Series win

(KANSAS CITY, MO.) — Lorenzo Cain looped a two-run single and Eric Hosmer chopped a two-run double over shortstop in a seven-run second inning as the Kansas City Royals battered the San Francisco Giants 10-0 Tuesday night to force a decisive Game 7 in the World Series.

Pitching with the initials of late St. Louis outfielder Oscar Taveras on his cap, 23-year-old rookie Yordano Ventura allowed three hits over seven innings for his first Series win.

Jeremy Guthrie starts Wednesday night for Kansas City and Tim Hudson for San Francisco in a rematch of Game 3, won by Kansas City 3-2. The 39-year-old Hudson will become the oldest Game 7 starter in Serieshistory.

Lurking is Madison Bumgarner, ready to pitch in relief after stifling the Royals on a total of one run in winning Games 1 and 5.

Home teams have won the last nine Game 7s in the World Series, and the Giants are 0-4 when the Series is pushed to a decisive game. Most recently, Barry Bonds and San Francisco lost Game 7 to the Angels in 2002.

In a Fall Classic full of one-sided games, the Royals chased Jake Peavy in the second. When Omar Infante doubled in the third, every Kansas City batter already had a hit.

Ventura made the one big pitch he needed to keep it a rout. After walking the bases loaded with one out in the third, he got Buster Posey to ground into a first-pitch double play. The young fireballer gave up two hits through the sixth.

There was a pregame moment of silence for Taveras, killed in a car accident Sunday in the Dominican Republic. Ventura wrote a tribute to his friend and countryman on his hat — RIP O.T #18 — and bent down behind the mound to write something on the dirt before his first pitch.

Shut out by Bumgarner in Game 5 at AT&T Park, and facing a 3-2 deficit, Kansas City hoped for a break to bust loose at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals certainly got one the only other time they hosted a Game 6 in the Series, when umpire Don Denkinger’s missed call in 1985 helped them rally past St. Louis for their lone crown.

This time, everything seemed to go Kansas City’s way. Hosmer & Co. had 14 hits after the sixth, and six different players had doubled.

How much did things tilt in the Royals’ favor? Hosmer came up with two runners on base in the second, and hit what appeared to be a hard RBI single off Yusmeiro Petit.

But time had been called just before Petit released the ball, and the hit didn’t count. Plate umpire Jeff Kellogg patted Hosmer on the chest as if to say, better luck next time.

And Hosmer did have better luck. He reached out, chopped a ball in front of the plate and it hopped over shortstop Brandon Crawford’s head, with Hosmer hustling and diving headfirst for a double that made it 6-0.

Before the game, in fact, the Giants and Royals both talked about how the infield in Kansas City was much harder than the dirt in San Francisco.

Mike Moustakas was able to ground an RBI double between first baseman Brandon Belt and the bag for a 1-0 lead in the second. But the dirt didn’t have any effect moments later when, with runners at second and third, Alcides Escobar hit a bouncer to Belt.

Belt ranged far off the base, looked to see if he had a play at home — the runner held — and then missed his tag on a diving Escobar. The misplay seemed to open the door for the Royals, and they charged through.

Cain walked in the first, hit a two-run single in the second and added an RBI double in the third. The speedy center fielder also made a fine running catch.

Well before the game, dozens of Giants fans dressed in team colors crowded behind the San Francisco dugout as their favorites warmed up. Among the signs they held was one by a young boy: “Hunter Pence Goes to the Dentist Every 6 Months.”

The loudest person of all in black and orange was 2012 Series MVP Pablo Sandoval — he whooped it up as his teammates got loose, a perfectly relaxed Kung Fu Panda.

Billy Butler laughed with former Kansas City great George Brett behind the cage during batting practice. The burly designated hitter had good reason to smile, being back in the lineup with the DH in play at the AL ballpark. Plus, Butler had enjoyed a lot of success in his career against Peavy — he came in 15 for 35 with three home runs vs. the veteran righty.

Also sharing a pregame smile was Royals manager Ned Yost. He slipped into the stands for a moment to pose for a picture with 12 family members, including his wife, three sons and daughter.

Just trust the puppet chicken

Sure, the San Francisco Giants are an excellent baseball team and possible dynasty and all that. But come on, how can you not root for the Kansas City Royals? The team that had the longest postseason drought in all of major North American pro sports—this was their first playoff appearance since 1985—is trailing 3-2 in the World Series, with Game 6 back in Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday evening. The kind folks from western Missouri and Kansas and other plains states deserve a Royals triumph—remember, this team lost 100 games in four different seasons from 2002-2006.

Here’s why KC can still win two straight games and pull out the Series:

Bumgarner in the bullpen… naybe

Giants ace Madison Bumgarner has a 2-0 record this World Series, with a 0.56 ERA. How good a World Series pitcher is Bumgarner? The best of all-time, by one measure: Among pitchers who have thrown at least 20 innings in World Series play, Bumgarner has the lowest ERA at 0.29. (Jack Billingham of the Cincinnati Reds has the second lowest, 0.36, from 1972-1976). The good news for Kansas City: Bumgarner, who threw nine innings of shutout ball Sunday night, is not scheduled to start in Tuesday’s Game 6 or Wednesday’s Game 7, if it’s necessary. Bumgarner has said he’s available to pitch in relief. So the Royals better smack around the starters: Jake Peavy Tuesday, and Tim Hudson Wednesday if it gets to that. Or if they see Bumgarner, they need to pray that he’s tired.

Ghosts of ’85

Since Kansas City won its last title in 1985, on nine different occasions a team returned home for a World Series Game 6 trailing 3-2, and needing to win two straight to close things out. Seven out of those nine teams accomplished that tough task. The Roylas can rely on their history for inspiration. In 1985, the team was three outs away from being eliminated in Game 6. But with the help of umpire Don Denkinger, the Royals rallied to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat St. Louis 2-1. Riding that momentum, the Royals smacked St. Louis 11-0 in the deciding Game 7. If Kansas City can win tonight, history is on its side for Game 7: Since 1985, no home team has won a Game 6 in a World Series to force a deciding Game 7, and then lost Game 7.

Listen to the chicken

So all the Royals have to do is get to Game 7, right? Well, Kansas City fans, take comfort: In lampooning the trend of animals predicting sporting events, late night talk show host Conan O’Brien has introduced Chikpea, the World Series Predicting Chicken. The low-budget chicken puppet uses sabermetrics to make her selections, and last week Chikpea correctly picked Kansas City to win Games 2 and 3. On Monday night, Chikpea returned to Conan, and said that the Roylas would win Game 6, too.

So the Royals are sitting pretty.

As the season opens, 37 countries will be represented on team rosters

For those worked up over foreigners taking American jobs, the National Basketball League can provide some fodder. The league announced Tuesday that 101 players from 37 countries, a new record, will be on NBA rosters at the season’s start. The NBA champion San Antonio Spurs have the most foreign players, nine, leading the league in that category for the third year. Their U.N. roster includes Frenchmen Tony Parker and Boris Diaw, two Australians, a Brazilian, a Canadian, an Italian and the big man from the small island, Tim Duncan, who is from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The league’s foreign legion is led by 12 Canadians, who apparently failed at their nation’s preferred winter sport. France provided 10 players, Australia eight and Brazil sent seven. There are also 13 players from the former Yugoslavia, as those hoop crazy nations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia continue to embrace the game.

There are just 450 jobs on the NBA’s 30 teams, which means that foreign players now hold 22% of them, up from 10% in the 2000-2001 season. Globalization is a two-way street, though. At least 80 Americans are playing soccer for foreign clubs.

Before the 24-second clock, teams trailing in the fourth quarter could never pull off a win

As the basketball season begins this week, it’s hard to imagine that 50 years ago the sport was in jeopardy. Potential fans could expect low-scoring games with lots of free throw shots, little contact and a very boring final quarter. A team with a small lead at the end of the game would hold the ball for as long as possible, essentially stopping play. The only thing the losing team could do was foul, which they did, and the final minutes of all close games would be drawn out into a free-throw shooting match. No quick layups, no desperation threes, no buzzer beaters. Just free throws.

How bad was it? In 1950, the Fort Wayne Pistons squeaked out a win against the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18, a score that today only occurs in middle school junior varsity games. In a playoff game—a playoff game—in 1954, Syracuse beat New York 75-69, and 75 of the points scored were from free throws.

Unsurprisingly, nobody was buying tickets to watch a sport with even less action than baseball. Desperate, owner of the Syracuse Nationals Danny Biasone came up with a plan: a shot clock. Each team would get 24 seconds to put up a shot. If they didn’t, they’d lose the ball. They rule was put in place for the 1954-1955 season.

It was immediately effective: NBA teams averaged 93.1 points that season, 13.6 more than the year before. “The new rule…has made the pro game a better, faster, more exciting sport,” TIME Magazine wrote in 1954. “Under the new rule, in some games this year a team that was behind in the last quarter has managed to pull out to win.” Imagine that!

But not everyone immediately took to the shot clock. “Some college coaches (freezing is still very much a part of the college game) are eying it with misgivings,” reported TIME. March Madness wouldn’t be very mad at all without that clock. Luckily, college teams came around.

So as you tune in to the Dallas Mavericks tipping off against reigning champions San Diego Spurs Tuesday night, thank Danny Biasone for saving the sport of basketball.

Read TIME’s 1998 cover story about Michael Jordan, here in the archives: The One and Only

(DENVER) — Relatives of a Broncos fan who went missing during last week’s game are wondering how a man with no known health or personal problems could seem to vanish without a trace.

Family and friends of 53-year-old Paul Kitterman have been searching for him since Thursday night’s matchup with the San Diego Chargers at Sports Authority Field.

His stepson, Jarod Tonneson, said he has not been seen since he left his seat to meet friends during halftime. Tonneson filed a missing persons report with Denver police, scoured the sprawling stadium, called local hospitals and detox centers and taped fliers around the city.

“We just don’t know what else to do,” Tonneson told The Associated Press on Monday. “Paul is a simple guy, he doesn’t like technology, he doesn’t get into drama. He’s just an easygoing guy.”

The two went to the game with two of their friends after a day spent working and hunting at another friend’s ranch in Kremmling, a small town in the mountains of northern Colorado.

Kitterman and Tonneson, both construction workers, hurriedly made the 100 mile trip to the stadium after a friend offered tickets. It was Kitterman’s first time there. In their haste, Kitterman forgot his cellphone, took no credit cards and very little cash.

Still, Kitterman had memorized his friends’ phone numbers and would have found ways to reach out if he wanted to leave. He had four or five beers in the course of a four-hour span, not enough to become disoriented, Tonneson said.

Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said detectives don’t suspect foul play, but he would not elaborate. He said police were trying to support the family in their search.

“They just don’t seem too worried about it being that he is a grown man,” Tonneson said.

His parents live in Arizona and his siblings in Missouri, but Kitterman has few contacts in the Denver area, Tonneson said.

“He wouldn’t just take off, you know?” Tonneson said. “He wouldn’t leave me there.”