To no surprise, San Francisco Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner and Kansas City Royals ace James Shields will square off in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday, October 21. These two starters also pitched the wild-card games for their teams and helped them begin their postseason journeys.
Bumgarner will make his fifth start of the 2014 postseason and Shields will make his fourth. Bumgarner is 2-1 with a 1.42 ERA and 28 strikeouts in starts against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals. Shields, on the other hand, is 1-0 with a 5.63 ERA and 15 strikeouts. He had a good start against the Los Angeles Angels in the NLDS, but surrendered eight earned runs in 10 innings of work against the Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles.
However, those were some of the best offensive teams in the MLB, and Shields will now face a San Francisco Giants squad whose offense ranked 12th during the 2014 regular season, which should give him a bit of a break. But the Giants' offense has been the second-most productive this postseason, scoring 41 runs on 88 hits against some of the league's better pitching. Who's been the most productive? Kansas City.
The Royals have swept their way to the World Series after defeating the Athletics in the Wild Card Game, followed by the Angels in the ALDS and Orioles in the ALCS. In eight games during the 2014 postseason, Kansas City has scored 42 runs (1st) with eight home runs (2nd) and a .259 average (1st among all LCS teams). This is also the Royals' first World Series appearance since 1985 and they'll be starting the first two games on their home field, so they have a lot of momentum on their side.
But the Giants have been postseason juggernauts over the past few years and won the World Series in their last two playoff appearances in 2010 and 2012. Led by Bruce Bochy, San Francisco will look to continue their postseason dominance, especially in the World Series, where they defeated the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers handily. Bochy is undefeated in postseason series with the Giants (30-11 record) and is looking to become the 10th manager in baseball history to win three World Series titles. Due to his recent success, he's slowly becoming known as one of the best postseason managers in the history of the game.
Bochy already announced the Giants' rotation for the postseason and said he will be keeping the order of Bumgarner, Jake Peavy, Tim Hudson and Ryan Vogelsong. This was the team's rotation in both the NLDS and NLCS. Tim Hudson, the 16-year accomplished veteran, will make his World Series debut in front of San Francisco's home crowd in Game 3. Royals' manager Ned Yost only went as far to reveal his starters for Game 1 (Shields) and Game 2 (Yordano Ventura).
The 2014 World Series will be the second ever (it also happened in 2002) to feature two wild-card teams, and will be the first such matchup since the expanded playoff format was introduced in 2012. Game 1 will be broadcasted by FOX at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21.
