World Series Game Six tonight in KC

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This is it — it’s do or die for the Kansas City Royals. Their backs are up against the wall, down three games to two in the 2014 World Series.

Madison Bumgarner (YouTube)
Madison Bumgarner
(YouTube)

The San Francisco Giants won two in a row in AT&T Park, the last behind the near perfect pitching of Madison Bumgarner. The San Francisco bats only scored five runs, but “Bum” kept the Royals scoreless, pitching all nine innings, the first complete game of this World Series.

It’s a new day and another game. With a must-win game, at home in Kauffman Stadium, maybe this is exactly where the Royals want to be for Game Six. Ready to make that comeback drive and win the first of two in a row. The Royals are not strangers to making comebacks. The Oakland A’s had them up against the wall in the Wild Card Game when, going into the bottom of the 8th, Oakland was leading 7-3. And then the Royals started their comeback.

The game went 12 full innings, with the A’s getting a run in the top of that last inning to pull ahead, but in the bottom of the 12th the Royals managed to get two runs, the first a single by Christian Colon that scored Eric Hosmer and the second and final run, a single by Salvador Perez that scored Colon. Final score of the Wild Card game: 9-8. It might still be the most thrilling game of the post-season.

Yordano Ventura of the Kansas City Royals (Claudia Gestro)
Yordano Ventura of the Kansas City Royals
(Claudia Gestro)

They went extra innings twice with the L.A. Angels and once with the Baltimore Orioles, so this Kansas City team has the ability and stamina to go the distance with the San Francisco Giants.

And tonight their starter is their young pitching phenom,Yordano Ventura. In Game Two the young starter gave up only two runs in five and a third innings. The Royals will need all of that and more from Ventura if they are going to win tonight. He is the hardest throwing starter in the major leagues with an average speed of 98 miles per hour when he throws the fastball.

On top of that the Royals have the best bullpen in the majors that can lock down any batting order, and they have shut down the Giants more than once in this series. Kelvin Herrera had some trouble in Game Five, but he’s been a steady and reliable mid-reliever for the Royals and if he pitches tonight it’s a good bet they will be scoreless innings.

Claudia Gestro
Claudia Gestro

For San Francisco, veteran Jake Peavy starts on the mound. He took the loss in Game Two, giving up four runs to the Royals in five-plus innings. If the Giants expect to end the series tonight Peavy and the San Francisco bullpen will need a much better effort than we saw last week. They can’t give up seven runs like they did in Game Two when they faced Ventura and the KC bullpen.

Plus, the Giants need to continue getting hits, as they did in Game Four especially when they scored 11 runs.

This is it, Game Six of the 2014 World Series. Will it end tonight with a Giants victory? Or will the Royals win to play another day? We will soon get our answer.