By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-With the first pitch of the game off the bat of Alcides Escobar, things did not go the way that the San Francisco Giants wanted.

Escobar lined a Tim Hudson fastball into the left field corner, then scored two batters later on a Lorenzo Cain groundout and the Kansas City Royals were able to hold off a late Giants charge to take Game Three of the World Series by the final score of 3-2 before 43,020 at AT&T Park.

Former Stanford star Jeremy Guthrie was cruising into the sixth inning, as he only allowed two hits heading into that frame; however the Giants finally got to him in the inning.

Brandon Crawford led off the inning by singling, and then Michael Morse doubled to left field to score Crawford to narrow the Royals lead down 3-1.

After the Morse double, Royals manager Ned Yost went to his bullpen to bring on Kelvin Herrera, who promptly walked Gregor Blanco and after Joe Panik grounded out for the first out of the inning, Buster Posey cut the Royals lead down to one, when he grounded out to Omar Infante at second base to score Morse from third base.

Just one-half inning earlier, Escobar singled after Guthrie grounded out and then Alex Gordon doubled to right field to score Escobar.

After Cain grounded out, Bruce Bochy brought on Javier Lopez, who promptly allowed a single to Eric Hosmer to score Gordon from second base.

Despite cutting the lead down to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Giants could only muster a walk to Hunter Pence against Royals relievers Brandon Finnegan, Wade Davis and Greg Holland, as they lost for the first at home in a World Series game since Game Three against the Anaheim Angels in the 2002 World Series.

In his World Series debut, Hudson went 5.2 innings, allowing three runs, while scattering just four hits, walking just one and striking out two.

Also making his World Series debut, Guthrie went five innings, allowing two runs, while also scattering four hits and he did not walk nor a strikeout a batter.

Guthrie was just the fifth starter ever to not give up a walk nor strikeout a batter and the first since Greg Maddux in Game Two of the 1996 World Series for the Atlanta Braves against the New York Yankees.

Both Guthrie and Hudson got into a groove, as after Brandon Belt’s single in the bottom of the second until Escobar’s single in the top of the sixth, the two starting pitchers retired a combined 22 batters during that stretch, 12 by Hudson and 10 by Guthrie.

Pence extended his streak of reaching base up to 16, as this goes back to Game Two of the 2012 World Series against the Detroit Tigers.

Hosmer’s single in the top of the sixth inning was his first of the series, and his 14th of the postseason tied for sixth most in Royals postseason history.

By pitching 0.1 of scoreless relief in place of Hudson, Lopez extended his scoreless streak up to 18 innings, tying him for fifth place all-time in postseason history.

Lopez tied current teammate Santiago Casilla, and trails Mariano Rivera (23), Chad Bradford, Dennis Cook and and another teammate Jeremy Affeldt, all whom have thrown 19 scoreless innings in postseason play.