Royals Up 2-1 in World Series

Without the benefit of the DH at the National League park, Ned Yost was forced to make some fielding and lineup changes. Those changes worked as the Royals beat the Giants 3-2 to take a 2 games to 1 lead in the World Series.

Yost moved Lorenzo Cain from center field to right field and inserted Jarrod Dyson in center. Cain made two very good plays on sinking line drives and appeared comfortable in his new position. Yost also moved Alex Gordon from 6th to 2nd in the lineup and Gordon responded with a clutch RBI double in the 6th.

Kansas City jumped on top in the 1st when Alcides Escobar doubled to lead off the inning. Alex Gordon grounded out to move Escobar to third and Escobar scored when Lorenzo Cain grounded out to short. KC had the early lead 1-0.

The Royals added to their lead in the top of the 6th. With one out, Alcides Escobar singled to center. Alex Gordon then doubled off the wall in right to score Escobar. After Lorenzo Cain grounded out to third, Javier Lopez relieved Tim Hudson for the Giants. Eric Hosmer had what is called a quality at bat against Lopez. Hosmer singled on the 11th pitch of the at bat to score Gordon and the Royals had built a 3-0 lead.

San Francisco rallied in their half of the 6th. Brandon Crawford singled to lead off. Mike Morse, pinch hitting for Javier Lopez, doubled to left to score Crawford. Kelvin Herrera relieved Royals' starter, Jeremy Guthrie and promptly walked Gregor Blanco. Joe Panik sent a high chopper to the mound to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Buster Posey then grounded to second to score Morse and the Giants had cut the lead to 3-2.

Neither team scored again and Greg Holland pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the Royals to preserve the win for Guthrie and pick up his 1st save of the World Series and 7th save of this postseason, an MLB record. The Royals bullpen became the first bullpen in MLB history to have 7 wins and 7 saves in a single postseason.

Buster Posey the New Jeter?

Gerald Dempsey "Buster" Posey has compiled some very interesting statistics in his first 5 full seasons with the Giants. Remember that Posey, a catcher, missed most of the 2011 season after fracturing his leg in a collision at home plate with Scott Cousins.

Is he as good as Derek Jeter was in his first 5 seasons?

Jayson Stark, of ESPN.com, has an indepth article on how good Posey has been and how he compares to Jeter at the same point in their careers. Read Jayson's article here.

Giants Win 6-4 Take 3 Games to 1 Lead in NLCS

The San Francisco Giants took a 3 games to 1 lead in the NLCS with a 6-4 win last night at AT&T Park on the west coast. Yusmeiro Petit got the win, in relief of starter Ryan Vogelsong, with 3 innings of effective relief work. Santiago Casilla picked up the save. Marco Gonzalez took the loss for St. Louis.

St. Louis broke on top with a run in the top of the 1st. Matt Carpenter doubled and Jon Jay walked. With one out, Matt Adams singled to left to drive in Carpenter. The Cards had the 1-0 lead.

The Giants answered in the bottom of the 1st. Gregor Blanco doubled to right to lead off. Joe Panik followed with a single that got Blanco to third. Buster Posey, who had 3 RBIs on the night, got Blanco home with a sacrifice fly to center. The score was tied 1-1.

The Redbirds would score another run in their half of the 2nd. Kolten Wong doubled to lead off the inning. AJ Pierzynski singled to drive in Wong and the Cards were back on top 2-1.

The Cardinals scored two more times in the 3rd. Matt Holliday doubled and Matt Adams singled with Holliday stopping at third. Jhonny Peralta hit into a 5-4-3 double play that scored Holliday. Kolten Wong hit a 3-2 pitch from Ryan Vogelsong over the right field fence to give the Cardinals a 4-1 lead. Kolten Wong his 7 hits this postseason...all for extra bases.

Joaquin Arias, pinch hitting for Vogelsong in the third, singled. Gregor Blanco grounded out to first as Arias moved to second. Joe Panik flied out to center and Arias took third. Buster Posey singled to left and Arias scored. Pablo Sandoval walked and Hunter Pence singled to drive in Posey. The Giants had cut the lead to 4-3.

Marco Gonzalez took the mound for St. Louis in the bottom of the 6th. Juan Perez walked to lead off the inning for the Giants. Brandon Crawford singled to right and Perez stopped at second. Matt Duffy, pinch hitting for Yusmeiro Petit, laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Perez to third and Crawford to second. Gregor Blanco grounded to first and Matt Adams decided to throw home to get Perez but Adam's throw short hopped the catcher and Perez scored. The next batter, Joe Panik grounded to first. Adams stepped on the bag to get Panik but threw wildly to second trying to get Blanco. Crawford scored and the Giants had their first lead, 5-4. With Blanco on second, Buster Posey singled to left off of Cardinal reliever, Seth Maness, and Blanco scored giving the Giants the 6-4 lead.

With the 6-4 win and a 3 games to 1 lead in the NLCS, the Giants face the Cardinals tonight in game 5 at AT&T Park. If the Giants win game 5 they will face the Kansas City Royals in game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday the 21st of October. If the Cardinals win game 5, the NLCS heads back to St. Louis for game 6 and, if necessary, game 7.

dr. howl of SBNation has a great article on this game, and the series from a Cardinal point of view here.

Giants Up 2-1 In NLCS On Throwing Error

A throwing error by Cardinal pitcher Randy Choate allowed Brandon Crawford to score the winning run in the Giants 5-4 victory in Game 3 of the NLCS.

The Giants scored four times in the bottom of the 1st. After two outs, Buster Posey singled to right. Pablo Sandoval followed with a single to center and San Francisco had runners at 1st and 2nd. Hunter Pence doubled to right scoring Posey and moving Sandoval to third. Brandon Belt was intentionally walked to load the bases.Travis Ishikawa doubled to deep right field to clear the bases and the Giants were up 4-0.

The Cardinals got two runs back in the 4th. Jon Jay singled as did Matt Holliday. After Tim Hudson got two outs, he gave up a triple to Kolten Wong that scored Jay and Holliday.

In the top of the 6th, The Redbird's Jon Jay singled. He went to second on a ground out by Matt Holliday and to third on a ground out to first by Matt Adams. Jay scored on a Jhonny Peralta single to left and the Cardinals had cut the Giants lead to 4-3.

Randel Gruchik, rookie right fielder for the Cardinals, tied the game at 4 all in the top of the 7th with a solo home run off of the first pitch he saw from Tim Hudson.

That was all the scoring until the bottom of the 10th. Randy Choate was on in relief of Seth Maness. Brandon Crawford worked an 8 pitch walk to lead off the inning. Juan Perez, after fouling off two bunt attempts, singled to left with Crawford stopping at second. Gregor Blanco bunted down the third base line attempting to move the runners along but Choate threw the ball away at first and Crawford scored.

The Giants won on a walk off error and lead the NLCS 2 games to 1.

Giants Swat 'Nats with 3-2 Win To Advance to NLCS

The San Francisco Giants are moving on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2014 NLCS Series. The winning run in last night's game, that gave the Giants the series win against the Nationals 3-2, scored on a wild pitch. Fitting that the wild card Giants advance on a wild pitch.

As a result of that pitch, thrown by rookie Aaron Barrett, the Giants start their quest for another even-year World Series win. They became the fourth team in MLB postseason history to win a post season series game on a wild pitch. The '27 Yankees, '72 Reds and the '04 Yankees were the other teams to accomplish this. Only the '27 Yankees won the World Series.

Giants pitchers held the Nationals hitters not named Anthony Rendon or Bryce Harper, to a paltry .113 batting average with just 14 hits in 123 at bats. Harper, by the way, joins Miguel Cabrera as the only players to hit 3 playoff series home runs before the age of 22.

Although the final score was 3-2, the Giants could have, and should have, scored more runs. They left 10 men on base and had the bases loaded twice with one out and failed to score.

The Giants scored the first runs of the game in the bottom of the second. With one out, Brandon Crawford singled. Juan Perez followed with a hard hit ball back to the pitcher that Gio Gonzalez misplayed for an error. Ryan Vogelsong then laid down a bunt toward third that Gonzalez overran and Anthony Rendon couldn't get to. Gonzalez walked Gregor Blanco to force in Crawford and Perez scored when Joe Panik hit a slow roller to first.

The Nationals scored a run in the 5th on a single by Ian Desmond and a double by Bryce Harper to narrow the gap to 2-1.

San Francisco loaded the bases again in the bottom of the 5th when, with runners on 1st and 3rd, Hunter Pence hit a ground ball to first. Adam Laroche fielded the ball and threw home in an attempt to cut down the runner from third. But, Gregor Blanco had taken two or three steps towards home and retreated to third. All runners were safe. Fortunately for the Nationals, Pablo Sandoval popped up to first and Brandon Belt struck out to end the inning with no damage.

Bryce Harper launched 3-1 pitch for a home run to right off of Hunter Strickland in the top of the 7th that landed in McCovey Cove and tied the score at two all. Wilson Ramos followed with a single but the Nationals would not score again.

The bottom of the 7th was a wild one. With one out, Joe Panik singled. Buster Posey, who would hit .389 for the series, singled and Hunter Pence worked an 8 pitch walk to load the bases. Aaron Barrett, in relief of Matt Thornton, uncorked a wild pitch to Pablo Sandoval that scored Panik. With a 3-1 count to Sandoval, the Nationals decided to walk him. The pitch went over the head of catcher Wilson Ramos but Posey was out at the plate. Giants manager, Bruce Bochy, challenged the play claiming Barrett blocked the plate. The call on the field was upheld and after Brandon Belt flew out to left the inning was over.

The Nationals would threaten no more and the Giants won the game 3-2 and the NLDS Series 3 games to 1.

San Francisco will travel to St. Louis on Saturday the 11th of October to take on the Cardinals in the 2014 NLCS, with the winner of that series taking on the winner of the Royals/Orioles ALCS Championship in the 2014 World Series.

Here are the top 10 videos of the NLDS final games from Gordon Dixon at Larry Brown sports.

Giants Beat Nationals 2-1 in 18 Innings

The San Francisco Giants and the Washington Nationals played an 18 inning game last night that lasted for 6 hours and 23 minutes. It was the longest game in MLB Playoff history by time and tied the record for the longest game by innings played.

The Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves played an 18 inning affair in the 2005 NLDS that the Astros would win 5-4 on a walkoff home run by Chris Burke. Roger Clemens picked up the win in relief in that game.

Tim Hudson started both of those games, for the Braves in 2005 and for the Giants in 2014. Adam LaRoche, of the Nationals played first base in both of those games.

Wilson Ramos, Nationals, and Buster Posey, Giants, each caught the entire 18 inning game. Tanner Roark, losing pitcher for the Nationals, was 27 when he gave up the home run to Brandon Belt in the top of the 18th but turned 28 before the Nationals would lose the game.

The Nationals 3 through 6 hitters, Jason Werth, Adam Laroche, Ian Desmond and Bryce Harper were 2 for 28 with 9 Ks. The Giants 3 through 6 hitters, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt were 7 for 27 with 2 RBIs and 7 Ks.

Read the full ESPN story here