Kansas City Royals on-deck batter Mike Moustakas (right) celebrates after his home run in game two of the World Series against the San Francisco Giants. (EPA)
The collapse was as quick as it was complete, and it left the San Francisco Giants blurry, bruised and scrambling to find solutions in a series that flipped in a hurry.
A night after they romped in the World Series opener, the Giants fell 7-2 to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday in a game decided by a five-run sixth inning that had five Giants toeing the rubber.
Manager Bruce Bochy was left wondering how to get the ball from his starters to the shutdown arms at the back end of his bullpen. Tim Lincecum was left lamenting the bad luck that turned his first postseason appearance into a visit to the trainer’s room with lower back tightness. Hunter Strickland was asked to try to explain actions that nearly cleared the benches. The bats were left to recover after a night spent waving at sizzling fastballs from the Royals bullpen.
The Giants knew they were in for a fight in this series, but they couldn’t have imagined a night like this, where they lost their composure and a resurgent pitcher along with the game. They were left looking for positives, and they found a big one. After two one-sided games in Kansas City, the series is tied heading back to San Francisco, where the Giants will host three games.
“You’d like to get greedy, but we know it’s going to be a tough series,” Bochy said. “It was a tight game until the sixth, but that’s the way it’s going to be. With their pitching and our pitching and the way both teams play, we are going to have a fight, I think, every game.
“It just got away from us there in the sixth ... but you go home, and I think you take a split.”
The Giants will try to regroup and find a way to solve the issues that sunk them in the bottom of the sixth, a frame that started with the teams tied at two. Jake Peavy teetered early in the game but found his command and retired 10 straight before the inning. Lorenzo Cain ignited the rally with a leadoff single to center, and Eric Hosmer worked a tough walk. Bochy turned to his well-rested bullpen and tried to play the matchups, but it blew up in his face.
Jean Machi was called on to face Billy Butler, and it was clear that Bochy was looking for one outcome. Only four relievers induced more double plays than Machi’s 12, and Butler, the plodding D.H., hit into 21 of them this season. Machi committed a cardinal sin, though, falling behind 2-0. He had to throw a strike, and Butler lined the meatball into left for a tiebreaking single.
The Giants are in the World Series in large part because of Travis Ishikawa’s contributions, but his inexperience in the outfield showed as Cain steamrolled around third. Third base coach Mike Jirschele sent the speedy outfielder without hesitation and despite the fact that Ishikawa scooped the ball up with Cain still a dozen feet from reaching third. He scored easily as Ishikawa made a late throw that was cut off.
“That’s his lack of experience as far as charging the ball and getting rid of it,” Bochy said. “That’s an area we know is not going to be our strength because this kid hasn’t been out there very much.”
Machi was done, and Javier Lopez retired Alex Gordon before giving way to Strickland, the hard-throwing rookie who was thought to be rehabilitated. Strickland allowed four postseason homers in advance of the World Series, but Bochy wanted to put him back in tight spots, so he had Strickland pitch the ninth inning Tuesday. It was a clean one, and Strickland got two quick strikes on Salvador Perez. But then he spiked a breaking ball that allowed both runners to advance, and threw a 97 mph fastball that caught too much of the plate. Perez slammed it into the gap in left-center for a double, scoring two as Kauffman Stadium rumbled. Omar Infante followed and lined a 98 mph fastball into the home bullpen to give the Royals a five-run lead. That’s when Strickland’s sour night took another ugly turn.
He had exchanged glares with Bryce Harper in the N.L. Division Series, and he thought Perez was yelling something at him as Infante rounded the bases. Strickland yelled right back, and several players started breaking out of the dugouts and bullpens.
“I assumed he was yelling at me _ that’s my fault for assuming,” Strickland said. “I was mad at myself. I got caught up, and I didn’t control my emotions like I should have. It was just a miscommunication. My emotions got the best of me. I’m not proud of that.”
Perez said he was baffled by the dust-up.
“He (started) to look at me, so I asked him, ‘Hey, why you look at me?’ “ he said. “You don’t have to treat me like that. Look at Omar. Omar hit the bomb. I didn’t hit the bomb. I hit a double.”
The bigger problem for the Giants was Strickland’s performance. Bochy had hoped to count on Strickland and Machi for big outs against a deep Royals lineup, but both have faltered in the postseason. Lincecum looked like he might finally provide a bridge to the back end of the bullpen. He retired five straight in his first postseason appearance but was pulled after feeling tightness in his lower back.
