Sunday, October 26, 2014
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO
Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval charged up a pulsating crowd with their shouts and swings, and the San Francisco Giants surged past the Kansas City Royals, 11-4, Saturday to tie the World Series at two games apiece.
Down by three runs in the early going and in danger of dropping into a huge hole, the Giants and their fans rallied.
The win ensured the Series will go back to Kansas City to decide the championship. In the meantime, there’s Game 5 tonight when postseason ace Madison Bumgarner starts for the Giants against struggling James Shields.
It’s a rematch from the opener, when San Francisco rolled 7-1.
The fired-up Pence got three hits, drove in three runs, scored twice and made a terrific catch in the ninth inning. Sandoval delivered a huge, two-run single that he punctuated by tossing his bat several feet.
Nearly lost in the torrent of runs were all sorts of sidelights: the first video challenge in the expanded replay era, an excellent catch by Royals center fielder Jarrod Dyson that kicked up a huge divot, and Giants manager Bruce Bochy throwing his hat in the dugout.
Not to mention another clutch performance in long relief by winning pitcher Yusmeiro Petit.
All the early frustration for the Giants turned into positive energy during a two-run comeback in the fifth that made it 4-all.
Then in the sixth, Sandoval hit a two-run single and Brandon Belt followed with an RBI single as the Giants roughed up postseason darling Brandon Finnegan to surge ahead.
Only a diving catch by Dyson that tore up a divot in the center-field grass prevented San Francisco from getting more. But the Giants soon broke it open with four runs in the seventh.