Watching the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals reach the World Series within a span of two days, the only thing you can say is wow.
As in wow, have the Kansas City Royals really won all eight of their postseason games? As in wow, the Royals were one inning away from losing the wild card game. As in wow, did the Royals score both runs in the series clincher without the ball leaving the infield?
As in wow, did the San Francisco Giants really win one game in 18 innings? As in did the Giants really clinch their third trip to the World Series by getting a game-ending three-run home run by Travis Ishikawa, someone who spent two days with the Yankees in the middle of last season before being released to make room for Derek Jeter‘s season debut?
The answer to all of those questions is that yes, all of this has happened and now we have the Royals and Giants in the World Series. We have four days to talk about the team that has not been there in 29 years and the team that is becoming old hand at this.
It’s the World Series that out of all the combinations going into the postseason might have been the least projected. Many projections had the Beltway World Series of the Orioles and Nationals or the Freeway Series of the Dodgers and Angels or the Trout vs. Harper matchup for the forced concept of the face of baseball.
Instead we’re in a better place for seeing this World Series, not that any of those combinations wouldn’t have made for a compelling World Series. It’s just watching the way the Royals and Giants go about winning these games, there’s a sense of satisfaction for two teams that win without the biggest stars and payroll.
The Royals have a $92 million payroll and a group of 11 players that were drafted or signed as undrafted free agents. The rest are the result of smart signings and trades to supplement that core. And perhaps the biggest one in terms of ALCS impact was the deal that landed Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar from the Milwaukee Brewers following the 2011 season.
On a team that batted .280 and completed the 13th ALCS sweep, Cain batted .533 and was the series MVP for also having a 1.255 OPS. Escobar had the game-winning hit in Game Two, batted .278 and along with Cain scored eight of the 18 runs.
The Royals aren’t just about their Milwaukee imports and and the young core of Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas. They’re about a manager in Ned Yost that does it his way and in the last two weeks it has worked out to levels nobody thought was possible when the season started.
Then there are the Giants. For all the talk of the Yankees acting like they have a birthright to be in every World Series, the Giants back it up with their play and ability to deliver clutch hits.
In 2010, broadcaster Duane Kuiper coined the saying “Giants baseball, it’s torture.” In reality it’s a term of endearment because torture of tight ballgames usually results in clutch hits and victories.
In 2010, en route to their first championship since the 1954 team stunned the 111-win Indians, the Giants had eight wins decided by three runs or less and in the seventh inning or later they scored nine times. That included Juan Uribe‘s stunning home run into the right field seats in Game Six of the NLCS in Philadelphia and Edgar Renteria‘s three-run blast in Game 5 in Texas to clinch the World Series.
In 2012, the Giants were defined by the comeback and domination. Though five of their wins were decided by three runs or less, they rallied from being swept by the Reds in the Division Series and then from being one loss away in the NLCS to the Cardinals before dominating the Tigers in a series where Pablo Sandoval set the tone with three home runs in Game One.
This year, the Giants dominated their way into the playoffs with an 8-0 rout in Pittsburgh. Then they won three close ballgames against the Nationals and then four more against the Cardinals.
In three years, the Giants are 30-11 in the postseason and have 21 wins decided by three runs or less. It may be “torture” but when it ends in the ecstasy and jubilation of Ishikawa’s home run, it’s all worth it.
Now the two teams that have made us say wow throughout the last three weeks meet for the championship.
