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Nightengale: Bumgarner, Giants flatten Royals, crowd in Game 1

Bob Nightengale
USA TODAY Sports
Madison Bumgarner led the Giants in Game 1 of the World Series.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The San Francisco Giants sure have a knack of crashing a party, and leaving it in ruins by the time they leave.

Here are those plucky Kansas City Royals, making their first World Series entrance in 29 years, and having an entire city go bonkers.

So what do the Giants do?

They show up at the Royals' home, Kauffman Stadium, and before the music gets loud, the Giants turn the joint into their own raucous party, trouncing the Royals, 7-1, in Game 1.

"We knew this series was going to be a battle,'' Royals manager Ned Yost said. "We didn't come in here and expect to sweep the San Francisco Giants.''

The trouble is that when the Giants come to these events every other October, they don't leave any survivors, choking out all the drama.

They have now won seven consecutive World Series games, the second-longest streak by a National League team in history.

This time, it was ace Madison Bumgarner doing the honors, yielding just three hits in seven innings, in a continuation of Giants pitching dominance in October.

This is the Giants' time of year, with their starting rotation yielding a 1.13 ERA since Game 4 of the 2010 World Series, giving up just eight earned runs in 64 innings.

Really, once the Giants scored three runs before their sixth hitter stepped to the plate in the first inning off Royals ace "Big Game" James Shields, everyone in that dugout knew the game was over.

"When he has a lead,'' Giants starter Jake Peavy says, "he smells blood. This guy is special. This guy competes as hard as anybody I've ever been around.

"He knows how to win.''

Bumgarner wound up giving up just three hits in seven innings, and until Royals catcher Salvador Perez's two-out homer in the seventh inning, Bumgarner had pitched 21 2/3 scoreless innings in the World Series. It was also the first time Bumgarner surrendered a run on the road in 32 2/3 innings in the postseason, a major-league record.

"It definitely makes it a lot easier on you when you can go out there and know that our guys have already scored three runs,'' Bumgarner says. "Just makes it easier to go out there and make pitches and attack guys and try to get ahead. You're not so worried about leaving one over the middle.''

The only ball left over the middle of the plate was the one by Shields, and crushed to center-field by Hunter Pence in the first inning, giving the Giants a 3-0 lead before Shields knew what hit him.

"Welcome to the Show,'' someone on the Giants' bench yelled to Pence when he reached the dugout.

Ah, those Giants, funny guys.

Pence hadn't homered in a month. It was Sept. 20, to be exact, off San Diego Padres pitcher Andrew Cashner.

"It's about time I helped you guys,'' Pence yelled back at his teammates.

Guess it really didn't matter that Pence had been hitless in 11 at-bats off Shields in his regular-season career, now, did it?

"Hunter brings more energy in here than anyone in this room,'' Peavy says, "every single day. We would not be the same team without Hunter Pence, to say the least. I've never played with anybody whose will and desire to fight that he talks about, and encourages other guys to play with.

"This guy's will is so strong. He's going to come out believing he's going to find a way to beat you.

"Special things happen when you believe as hard as he believes.''

And, after tackling Travis Ishikawa rounding the bases after his walk-off homer to win the National League pennant last week, Peavy was quite proud that was able to restrain himself this time.

"I didn't even run out onto the field,'' Peavy says. "I'm excited about that. I got my first homer out of the way without tackling a guy.''

And with Peavy staying on the bench, Pence made sure he wasn't about to let that crowd get into his head, either.

"I didn't hear anything, but it was really loud in my head,'' Pence says. "I say this, and I truly mean it, something my mind when I'm playing the game or our team is doing something good, it's like an emptiness.

"I don't know what's going on around me. It's kind of a blessing and a curse at home.

"I get people really angry with me, but on the field, it works out good.''

Certainly, it muzzled the sellout crowd at Kauffman Stadium that waited 29 years to see a World Series game.

So much for the Royals' eight-game winning streak in this postseason, and 11 if you go back to the '85 World Series.

It was the Giants' 16th victory in their last 18 postseason games, who are now building a tradition of suffocating the drama out of every World Series party.

Let's see, back in 2010, they knocked around Texas Rangers ace Cliff Lee in Game 1, winning 11-7, and ultimately the World Series in five games.

In 2012, they bashed Detroit Tigers Cy Young winner Justin Verlander in Game 1, 8-3 and swept the World Series.

And now, the Giants knock Shields out of the game after only three innings, so you know where we're going with this trend.

The last three aces who opposed the Giants in Game 1 of the World Series have yielded a 12.34 ERA, with none of them lasting past 4 2/3 innings.

And all three left the World Series empty-handed while the Giants have a ring on each finger.

We really want to call this luck?

Please.

"We don't think any of that is luck, voodoo or karma,'' says Peavy. "We hear that, and we're amused by it. We laugh about it.

"We believe it's being the best 25-man team we can be. Once you get guys to believe in that, you can win. You can beat anybody.

"It's not like the Cardinals had way more talent than us. (They went down in 5 games).

"Washington? Maybe so. (They went down in 4 games).

"At the end of the day, this is a team game. There's 25 guys that gather together in that clubhouse, and we believe with every last bit of us that we will find a way to win.''

And they prove it.

Every other year.

When it comes to October, the Giants just don't lose.

And if the Giants don't have enough going in their favor, history shows that the winner of Game 1 have won 15 of the last 17 World Series.

Certainly, there's a long ways to go in this Series. The Royals didn't come this far without having a lot of heart and soul, even recovering from a four-run, eighth-inning deficit off Oakland's Jon Lester in the wild-card game just to get into the tournament.

Yet, all that mojo the Royals carried with them into the game vanished by the first inning, with Shields lasting just 16 batters, with eight reaching base. He now has a 7.11 ERA this postseason, and has yet to make it past the sixth inning in any of his four starts, averaging just 4 2/3 innings.

Yost insists that Shields will make his next start in Game 5 against the Giants.

Of course, there has to be a Game 5 for him to pitch.

The Royals' offense has to come to life to give them a chance.

Why, with all of the talk about their speed, stealing seven bases in four innings against the Giants this summer, they never attempted a stolen base this night.

"You can't steal first base,'' Yost said. "And when you can't get on base, you can't utilize that speed.''

Bumgarner never gave them a chance.

"He was dynamite,'' Yost says. "I mean, man, was he good.''

Then again, what's new?

After all, it's October.

"We don't care how we win,'' Peavy says, "or how we score. The starter could go three innings, and the bullpen could go the next six. It doesn't matter.

"We just do it.''

Again. And again. And again.

Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale

GALLERY: WORLD SERIES - GIANTS vs. ROYALS

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