Battle of the wildcards

Whisper it carefully, but there’s a revolution Stateside in one of the most intriguing match-ups witnessed in Major League Baseball’s showcase event.

For the first time ever the World Series is being contested by two sides that failed to win 90 matches in the regular season and only qualified as wildcards (in other words teams that performed so poorly in the regular season that a play-off was required to reach the play-offs!).

The San Francisco Giants have plenty of post-season experience having won two of the last four titles although they were largely un-fancied at the start of this mammoth season of 162 matches before the play-offs.

However, their opponents have become part of baseball folklore having failed to even reach the play-offs for a record 29 consecutive seasons, finishing at the bottom of the American Central Division on eight occasions. Since 2000 the Kansas City Royals have lost more games than any other team and have scored only 95 home runs in the regular season, the fewest of all teams.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the turnaround in their misfortune is attributed to a trade in the 2012 season that saw them wave farewell to a number of promising youngsters and welcome pitchers Wade Davis and James Shields.
 
Their post-season success has been accredited to an excellent defence and the quality of their relief pitchers who have helped them to the World Series Finals without losing a game, stepping out of the bullpen to close out the game.

Kansas, after defeating Oakland Athletics, has completed clean sweeps against the ‘money-no-object’ Los Angeles Angels 3-0 and then the fancied hard-hitting Baltimore Orioles 4-0.

Historically, they have not always been such a hopeless case. Formed in 1969 they did win the ultimate prize in 1985 whereas more famous teams such as the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox had to wait 86 and 88 years respectively.

The success of the Royals from the mound and struggles with the bat are symptomatic of all baseball. In 2000 the sluggers across the country combined to hit a record 5,693 home runs while 2014 has witnessed just 4,186, the lowest total since 1995.

The World Series has seen both sides demonstrate the reasons they qualified for this showcase while also slipping to show the weaknesses that meant they resorted to wildcards to make it past the regular season.

The result has been a thrilling finale that has had neutrals salivating.

Kansas started the series at home and were dismantled by the Giants’ main weapon, superstar pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, who led the Giants to a dominant 7-1 win.

However, they came back in Game Two to level the best of seven series with a comfortable 7-2 victory. Second baseman, Omar Infante, hit a two-run ‘homer’ to overturn a deficit and start the ball rolling with six unanswered runs.

The Royals continued their form with the first win of the series at the AT&T Park in San Francisco with a nail-biting 3-2 victory. After taking a 3-0 lead the Royals conceded two runs to pinch-hitter, Michael Morse. However, the relief pitchers, with only a slender lead to protect, delivered four shut-out innings to secure the series lead.

In the fourth game of the series Kansas looked as though they had found some momentum when they hit four runs in the third inning to take a 4-1 lead. Yet the injury-hit Giants were not finished and Hunter Pence led the rally with three hits and three runs as the series was again leveled with an 11-4 thrashing.

At the time of going to print San Francisco had just taken a lead with both teams heading back to Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium, for the two final remaining games, if required. The star of the show again was southpaw pitcher, Bumgarner, who threw a shutout as San Francisco won 5-0, meaning he has now conceded only one run in a total of 31 careers innings pitched in the World Series.

The bad news for the Giants is that he is not scheduled to play in either of the final games although rumours abound that he will make himself available from the bullpen in the final match, Game Seven, scheduled for tonight.

With both starting pitchers for the Giants having a losing record it’s anyone’s from here although statistically the team that wins the third game with the scores previously tied has gone on to win the title two-thirds of the time.