KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Win or lose, Jake Peavy is a treat to watch when he pitches.
He scowls, he shouts, he grimaces, he grins. Never hard to tell how things are going for him.
And depending how he does for the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night against Kansas City rookie Yordano Ventura, this World Series could quickly shape up as an even match or a mismatch.
Madison Bumgarner, who shows virtually no emotion on the mound, got the Giants off to a terrific start in Game 1. Given an early cushion by Hunter Pence’s home run, the man called MadBum by his teammates carried a shutout into the seventh inning and beat the Royals 7-1 Tuesday night.
“He doesn’t get flustered out there,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
Back on the field after a five-day layoff, the Royals looked nothing like the fresh team that had become baseball’s darlings by starting the playoffs with eight straight wins.
“Big Game James” once again failed to live up to that billing and left in the fourth when the Giants made it 5-0.
“It just wasn’t my night,” Shields said.
Kansas City threw two wild pitches, slick-fielding third baseman Mike Moustakas misplayed a ball, and sure-handed right fielder Nori Aoki let one get past him. The fleet Royals managed only four hits and didn’t get a chance to run.
“Well, we never got on base,” manager Ned Yost said. “That disrupts a lot of things when you don’t get on base. The old adage is you can’t steal first, and Bumgarner did a great job of keeping us off base. When you do that, we can’t utilize our speed.”
The Giants led 3-0 after the first inning at Kauffman Stadium and won their seventh World Series game in a row. The Royals’ string of 11 straight postseason wins, dating to their last Series appearance in 1985, came to sudden halt.
Bumgarner added to his sparkling World Series resume, improving to 3-0 and extending his scoreless streak to 21 innings before Salvador Perez homered with two outs in the seventh.
“I would tell you I wasn’t thinking about it, but you know,” Bumgarner said. “There’s no way around it. You know. There’s so much talk about it. Obviously, a World Series game is not something you tend to forget.”
Bumgarner stretched his road postseason shutout streak to a record 32 2-3 innings as the Giants cruised. He pitched three-hit ball for seven innings, struck out five and walked one.
Next up, it’s time for Peavy.
The 33-year-old Peavy is 1-3 with a 7.03 ERA in seven postseason starts, including an outing for Boston in last year’s World Series. He beat Washington in the NL Division Series and was pulled after four innings vs. St. Louis in the NL Championship Series.
Naturally, he’s fired up.
“I really have, yeah, just the old Southern, dig-your-toes in the mud, and try to make your stand,” he said.
“For me … outwardly it comes out in ways that I look back and my children go, ‘God, daddy, you were really excited.’ They had me turning into the Hulk in Washington after the double play, when I was looking at my guys,” he said.
Ventura will become the first Royals rookie to start a World Series game at any position.
“I think we all know how talented he is, and we’ll try to hopefully take advantage of some of the excitement,” Peavy said. “He’s going to throw balls close to 100 miles an hour with a really good slider.
“He’s young and he’s, I’m sure, going to come out guns a-blazing and be really excited, as he should be. It’s the World Series.”
UP NEXT
Giants: Peavy lost 12 straight decisions this season, spanning his July trade from Boston to the Giants. … Royals DH Billy Butler is 14 for 33 (.424) with three HRs off Peavy.
Royals: No Giants hitter has faced the 23-year-old Ventura. … Ventura pitched well in an ALDS start against the Angels and struggled vs. Baltimore in the ALCS, leaving with a tight shoulder.
KUNG FU PRODUCTION
Pablo Sandoval hit an RBI double in the first inning and singled home a run in the seventh. The 2012 World Series MVP extended his streak of reaching base to 24 straight postseason games.
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