Morning Marquee: Bumgarner’s gem gives Giants Series lead

The World Series was hosted in Kansas City for the first time in almost 30 years. It’s return was a bit anticlimactic as the San Francisco Giants jumped on starter James Shields early and never looked back en route to a 1-0 series lead.

It does turn out, however, that Madison Bumgarner is mortal. Well, sort of. Bumgarner threw seven innings of three-hit ball, allowing only a Salvador Perez home run in the seventh. That ended his road scoreless streak at 32 2/3 frames, and his World Series scoreless streak at 21. That sit’s at the second longest behind only Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson’s 28.

After an 8-0 start to October, Kansas City Royals fans got an early dose of reality from the Giants. Hunter Pence hit a three-run home run, and the Giants chased Shields in the fourth inning. The Giants have now won 16 of their last 18 postseason games, while handing the Royals their first this year.

History now favors the Giants, as the winner of the first game has captures the Series title 68 times, or 62.4 percent. And in recent history even more often. 10 of the previous 11 years and 15 of the last 17.

Pablo Sandoval continues to make a push for the title of “Mr. October”. Sandoval reached base safely for the 24th straight postseason game, the longest active streak in baseball. He trails only Miguel Cabrera’s record 31 straight. He also increased his postseason batting average to .328, passing the great Babe Ruth. He now sits ninth on the list with players of at least 125 plate appearances.

The Game 2 starters will be a great symbolic representation of these two teams. For the young, upstart Royals, Yordano Ventura. For the veteran, been here before Giants, Jake Peavy. With the staff aces out of the way, at least for a few games, the series could turn into a battle of the bullpens. And there’s no reason for the Royals to panic. The dropped the first two in 1985, but that worked out alright for KC.

Here are the headlines from yesterday:

‘Pence, Bumgarner lead Giants to Series lead’ – Around the Foghorn

‘James Shields implodes in Royals 7-1 loss’ – Kings of Kauffman

‘Royals made Hudson ‘a very good offer’ last year’ – Call to the Pen

‘Cubs’ Russell rakes in Fall League victory’ – MLB.com

‘Cubs may chase LHP Andrew Miller this winter’ – Cubbies Crib