Bruce Bochy had become less of a manager and more of a savant. As the San Francisco Giants advanced through the playoffs and into their third World Series in five years, the guy running the show was widely crowned a genius.
Midas does not touch gold every night. That Hunter Strickland emerged as a key figure in Game 2 of the World Series meant Bochy had an off night.
In the span of one fateful inning, Bochy pushed the wrong buttons, his rookie reliever lost his composure, and the Giants lost the game.
Omar Infante’s home run capped a five-run sixth inning in the Kansas City Royals’ 7-2 victory over the Giants. The Royals are all even in this World Series — and wide awake, with an assist from Strickland.
The series shifts to San Francisco for Game 3 on Friday.
The score was tied, 2-2, after five innings, with San Francisco starter Jake Peavy set to face the heart of the Royals lineup for the third time. The Giants had a well-rested bullpen, and Peavy had not completed six innings in any of his previous postseason starts, but he had retired 10 consecutive batters.
So Bochy let Peavy start the sixth. By the time the inning was over, Bochy had used five pitchers, and the teams nearly had brawled.
Lorenzo Cain singled. Eric Hosmer walked. Exit Peavy, enter right-hander Jean Machi.
Billy Butler singled home Cain, and the Royals led, 3-2. Exit Machi, enter left-hander Javier Lopez.
Alex Gordon flied out. Exit Lopez, enter the right-handed Strickland.
Strickland spent most of the summer in double A, but the Giants called him up in September. He faced 25 batters, walking none, giving up no runs, approaching 100 mph with his fastball.
This would be the Giants’ shiny new playoff toy and closer of the future. However, of the 18 batters he faced in the division series and league Championship Series, four hit home runs.
So enter Strickland, with the Giants down by one.
Salvador Perez doubled, and the Giants were down by three. Infante homered, and the Giants were down by five.
And, as Perez closed in on home plate, he and Strickland started barking at each other. The players rushed out of the dugouts and bullpens, although the umpires separated the two sides before anything resembling a punch could be thrown.
Bochy removed Strickland and, as he waited for Jeremy Affeldt to arrive from the bullpen, an umpire escorted Strickland back to the San Francisco dugout.
Tim Lincecum, the two-time Cy Young Award winner turned mop-up man, pitched the seventh and part of the eighth for San Francisco before leaving because of an apparent injury. The appearance was his first of the postseason.
From watching the first inning, you would not have imagined that Peavy still would have been pitching in the sixth.
The first batter, Alcides Escobar, singled. He was thrown out trying to steal, and Nori Aoki flied out. But Cain doubled, Hosmer walked, and Butler singled home Cain.
In the second inning, Infante doubled, Escobar doubled him home, and Peavy had given up hits to five of the first 10 Kansas City batters. The Royals led, 2-1, their first lead of the Series.
But Peavy retired the next 10 Kansas City batters. His pitch count: 20 in the first inning, 11 in the second, 11 in the third, seven in the fourth, eight in the fifth.
The Giants struck immediately off Yordano Ventura, as Gregor Blanco led off the game with a home run. The Giants scored their other run off Ventura in the third inning, on a double by Pablo Sandoval off the center-field wall and a double by Brandon Belt on which Aoki, the right fielder, kicked the ball while sliding to field it.
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