by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–Giants relief pitcher Hunter Strickland and the near brawl in Kansas City in game two last Wednesday has nothing to the do with the Giants losing game two or having anything to do with the Giants going off track and losing game three either.

The Giants have not lost their poise due to Strickland’s actions and the Giants turned on six pitches and the Giants Hunter Pence was thrown out stealing. Pence who had a base hit and the Giants only had four hits and they have to capitalize on it and there was no problem with Pence’s steal attempt and it was done at the proper time and they just threw him out by a fraction of a foot.

It was a great performance by both pitchers the Royals Jeremy Guthrie (1-0) and the Giants starter Tim Hudson (0-1). Guthrie and the Royals bullpen of Kevin Herera, Brandon Finnegan, Wade Davis, and closer Greg Holland stopped the Giants after the sixth inning. The Giants Javier Lopez gave up a hit that wound up allowing the third run. Lopez though continues his streak with 19 straight post season appearances until reliever Jeremy Affeldt past him up with his 21st post season appearance.

Affeldt got charged with a run that puts him behind only former Yankee releiver Mariano Rivera on the all time list in 21 games. The Royals pitched well in game three on Friday night there are no two ways about it. They located their pitches, Herera had difficulty with his command and it was surprising that they doubled switched and they pinched hit for Herera when he came up with a runner at first base with two outs.

Royals manager Ned Yost said that Herera’s arm bounces back a little faster and he can sit between innnings and come back and throw and Davis cannot. Their absolutely commmitted to going with Herera, Davis and Holland in that order and not letting anybody else break into that sequence. So that’s what the Royals did and it worked well for them. More power to them they have the better team.

They were ready from the first pitch when Hudson threw it to start the game and the Royals hit it hard scoring the opening run of the ball game in the top of the first to get things going. Then after that it was a lot of ground balls until the Royals picked up two more runs in the top of the sixth inning. It was rock solid in the middle of the game between Guthrie and Hudson.

20 straight batters came to the plate and they were scored outs from both sides of the dugouts. It was a well played, well pitched game. The Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval made an brilliant play on a ball that was hit by a shattered bat. Pieces of the bat and Sandoval had to bare hand the ball and it nearly eluded his arms reach. Panda was able to reach out and pluck it in the air, juggle it, get a grip on it and throw it to first base. It was an absolutely top notch World Series play.

Michael Duca is doing commentary on the 2014 World Series for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images