Giants at Royals, 2:00PM HST/5:00PM PT, TV: Fox
The Giants ask Madison Bumgarner to start the Series and do what he did in the Wild Card game and in Game One of the NLCS: give them a strong and long performance and get them off on the right foot in the Series. The Royals send James Shields to the mound. He also started the Wild Card game, although he didn’t do well in it (5 innings, 5 hits, 4 earned runs, ERA of 7.20). He then started Game Three of the ALDS and won it to send the Royals to the ALCS, where he pitched Game One against the Orioles. He didn’t do well in that game either, (5 innings, 10 hits, 4 earned runs, ERA of 7.20 again).
Have the two teams faced each other recently? Yes. In August the Giants went to Kauffman Stadium, where they were swept by the Royals, who were in the midst of a stretch where they won 14 of 16 games. San Francisco was outscored, 16-6, with Bumgarner taking one of those losses in a complete-game effort.
Fun fact: in all the postseason games so far, 14 have been decided by one run.
Not so fun fact: once again we get Joe Buck doing play-by-play. This time his partners are Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci, with Ken Rosenthal near the Royals’ dugout and Erin Andrews outside the Giants’.
If you’re in your car, ESPN Radio will have the games, with play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman and analyst Aaron Boone. The pregame and postgame show consists of host Jon Sciambi, analyst Chris Singleton, ESPN MLB Insider Peter Pascarelli and in-studio host Marc Kestecher.
In case y’all missed it, Baseball America named Kershaw its Major League Player of the Year.
I did miss it — thanks for the link, Link.
Unfortunately, SF is good with the clutch hits.
I think it will be much better for me — in many ways — to not spend too much time watching this Series.
It’s like pushing a bruise, isn’t it?
Yup.
And preventing me from getting productive work done.
Let’s hope these boys in blue are better hitters in the clutch than the Blue were in the playoffs.
Deja vu all over again — from the uniforms . . . to the great expectations leading to a bleak house.
The announcers are having a Gnats love-fest. Not sure I can watch this, even though I’ve been baseball starved.
Ugh. Back from Italy. Gnats going gnuts.
Seems like forever since you left . . . AKA the game with the Sickening 7th Inning (part 1, as it turned out). . . .Was the trip as great as can be imagined?
Soooo wonderful.
Good for you!
We Dodger fans know all about an ace being hit hard in the postseason.
Hopefully Giant fans soon share the same feeling.
Shields up to 30 pitches already.
Think I’ll opt for the radio next to the TV. I don’t have the distaste for Joe Buck (Cardinal homer) that most folks do and I like Harold Reynolds, but Dan Shulman is exceptional. Friedman is going to have a very unpleasant task in the booth in the next few years, he could do a lot worse than Shulman.
One unwatchable team (of two), four unwatchable broadcasters (of five).
I couldn’t stand to watch the O’s-Royals series at all. Ernie Johnson has a basketball voice that seeks to make every action into some sort of unbelievable occurrence.
I don’t expect to see a single pitch although, if the Royals manage to get on base, they should run wild on the Busted Poseur.
How happy do you think Kasten and company would be to trade for Buster Posey? I, for one, would love it. He’s a great player, deserving of all our respect.
I’d say he’s very good but overrated. His defense is questionable, but his bat is valuable for the position. When he moves to first or third, as he will need to soon, he becomes much less valuable.
Both the ESPN radio teams (Sciambi and Singleton do the Sunday Night Baseball radio while Schulman and Boone do the TV) are good, although Boone’s got a little bit of motormouth.