by Jerry Feitelberg

The San Francisco Giants lost 4-2 to the Kansas City Royals Friday night in Kansas City. The game was a battle of left-handed pitchers. The Giants sent out their ace, Madison Bumgarner, to face the Royals who were trying to win their fifth straight game. Jason Vargas was on the hill for Kansas City.

It would not be easy task for the Giants to beat the Royals. The Royals had won four straight coming into Friday’s game and they had won 2 out of 3 from the A’s last weekend. The Royals are just 2 1/2 games behind Detroit for the AL Central lead.

The Royals took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. With one out, Omar Infante doubled and that was followed by a blast off the bat of Billy Butler into the seats in left field.Bumgarner really labored in the first inning throwing 29 pitches. The Giants tied the game in the third. Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval had back to back singles but Pence was called out at third on a very strange play. The play was called safe but Royals Manager Ned Yost asked for a replay. On the replay, it showed that Pence’s hand appeared to come off the bag while the third baseman still had the tag applied. The call was overturned and that hurt the Giants as first baseman Michael Morse singled and that was followed by a Joaquin Arias double that allowed Sandoval to score with the Giants’ first run of the game. Second baseman Matt Duffy singled to score Morse but Aoki’s throw from right field nailed Arias at the plate for the final out of the inning, Aoki tied a club record with two assists in one inning on throws from the outfield.

The Royals scored twice in the sixth inning to take a 4-2 lead. The Giants made two throwing errors on the same play that allowed the Royals to take the lead for good. Omar Infante singled with one out. Royals catcher Salvador Perez lined a shot to first baseman Michael Morse. Morse’s throw to Duffy at second was offline and Duffy’s throw back to Morse, in an attempt to get Perez, sailed over Morse’s head and both runners were safe. Billy Butler singled to drive in his third run of the game. Royals Left fielder Alex Gordon doubled to drive in the Perez with the second run of the inning.

The outstanding bullpen of the Royals took over. Kelvin Herrera in the 7th, Wade Davis in the 8th and closer Greg Holland in the 9th sealed the win for Kansas City.

Madison Bumgarner took the loss and he is 13-9 for the season. After the game manager Bruce Bochy said “I thought he did a great job.After the first inning, he pitched great. He gave us all he had out there. He gave us a chance to win.” Bumgarner went eight innings and threw 123 pitches.

Game two of the series will be Saturday August Ninth at 4:10pm PDT