Playoff Pinch Hits: Giants’ Bumgarner Is The New World Series Hero
By Sam McPherson The 2014 World Series will always be remembered for Madison Bumgarner and his seemingly unflappable left arm. He pitched the final five innings in a 3-2 win for the San Francisco...
View Article5 Things You Missed: 2014 World Series, Game 7
By Daniel Rathman When play began last night, visitors were 0-9 in Game 7 of the World Series since 1982. But the 2014 Giants had a horse in their stable that none of the nine road clubs that preceded...
View Article5 Things You Missed: 2014 World Series, Game 6
Before the Royals went down three games to two, leaving themselves with no path to victory besides forcing and prevailing in a winner-take-all Game 7, their manager, Ned Yost, admitted to secretly...
View Article5 Things You Missed: 2014 World Series, Game 5
By Daniel Rathman Until Sunday, the most recent complete-game shutout in the World Series belonged to Josh Beckett, who led the Marlins past the Yankees in Game 6 in 2003. Less than one month after...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: Pitching Matchup Favors Giants In Game 5
By Sam McPherson Down 4-1 early in Game Four of the World Series on Saturday night to the Kansas City, the San Francisco Giants responded with 10 unanswered runs to gallop away with an 11-4 victory,...
View Article5 Things You Missed: 2014 World Series, Game 4
By Daniel Rathman Friday’s Game 3 was a relatively tidy, 3-2 affair. Both starters were crafty and efficient, working into the sixth and benefiting from quality defense. Both managers used only their...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: World Series Game 4 Will Be Another Close One
By Sam McPherson The Kansas City Royals had the San Francisco Giants right where they wanted them in Game Three of the 2014 World Series: trailing going into the late innings. In the endgame, it was...
View Article5 Things You Missed: 2014 World Series, Game 3
By Daniel Rathman In the last 56 World Series that began with the road team earning a 1-1 split, there has been no home-field advantage for the hosts in Game 3. They were 26-30 at the start of play on...
View Article5 Things You Missed: 2014 World Series, Game 2
By Daniel Rathman Armed with perhaps the most dominant late-inning relief corps in the majors, the Royals were 65-5 when leading after six innings this year. So even though Game 2 started ominously,...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: Royals Even Up World Series; Giants Not Worried
By Sam McPherson This isn’t the way the San Francisco Giants scripted their third trip to the World Series in the last five seasons, and that’s just fine with the Kansas City Royals. The Royals’ bats...
View Article5 Things You Missed: 2014 World Series, Game 1
By Daniel Rathman While this year’s Fall Classic was billed as the first-ever matchup of teams that failed to win 90 games in a 162-game season, the subplot for Game 1 featured two much-less-dubious...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: Giants Hard To Beat After World Series Game 1 Win
By Sam McPherson The San Francisco Giants like winning Game One of the World Series. This is the fourth straight time now, dating back to 2002, the Giants have won the opener of the Fall Classic, and...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: James Shields-Wil Myers Trade A Success For Royals
By Sam McPherson In December 2012, Kansas City Royals General Manager Dayton Moore made one of the biggest trades in recent memory, acquiring Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher James Shields in exchange...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: Royals And Giants An Unlikely World Series Pairing
By Sam McPherson Depending on your point of view, the 2014 World Series matchup between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants is either everything you wanted — or nothing like you...
View ArticleAdmit It Giants Fans, Nobody Else Wants Us To Win
By Sam McPherson Back in 2010 the baseball world was backing the “Fear the Beard” Giants in their improbable run to the World Series. Two world titles later, don’t expect a repeat of the national good...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: Kansas City Royals’ Streak May End In World Series
By Sam McPherson With yet another win fueled by defense and pitching on Wednesday, the Kansas City Royals claimed their first American League pennant since 1985 with a 2-1 victory in Game Four of the...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: Are The Giants Headed For A 7-Game Series?
By Sam McPherson The San Francisco Giants won the battle that was Game Three on Tuesday, but all parties involved know the war — a.k.a the National League Championship Series — is far from over. What...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: Predicting The World Series Matchup
By Sam McPherson Monday’s rainout of Game Three in the American League Championship Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals provides a unique chance to look forward, evenly, at...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: Wild-Card Teams Dominating MLB Postseason
By Sam McPherson Like him or not, outgoing MLB Commissioner Bud Selig brought some changes to the game of baseball in the last two decades — most notably the expansion of the postseason in 1994 (even...
View ArticlePlayoff Pinch Hits: It’s All Kansas City In The American League Playoffs
By Sam McPherson The Kansas City Royals just keep on winning in the most impressive fashion, and nothing seems to be able to stop them from advancing in the 2014 American League playoffs right now....
View Article