Royals World Series Game 5 Review

Well going in to Game 5 I thought the Royals would have to play a perfect game to win and I was not sure if that would even do it. They would have to pitch, field, bat (move runners and scratch across a couple runs) and manage almost perfectly to have a chance. Shield's pitched well, made a couple mistakes, but the best he had all post season. The defense did not play their best and that had a direct impact on the first two runs scoring. The reliable bullpen (once the game was already out of reach) allowed San Francisco to close the door. Ned made some choices that seemed to be mid-season form allowing Yosted to start trending again in KC. As it turned out even if the Royals did not make half of these mistakes it was not going to be enough to beat Bumgarner and the Giants in Game 5.



I could spend an hour talking about the what ifs for the Royals from last night, but instead I am going to tip my cap to Bumgarner on pitching an amazing game. The biggest problem for the Royals in this series are that they have had to face what is arguably the best World Series pitcher of all time. Having now 4 starts winning all 4 games and pitching 31 innings and giving up 1 run, and he is only 25!

To me it looked like the Royals knew all of this and pushed to make plays and the pressure got to them and some easy plays were made harder and they made mistakes. Some nights in baseball a team, pitcher or player is just that much better that they carry the team to a victory. This is amplified when it is Game 5 of the World Series and your team just feel behind 3-2 and now have no margin for error.

I will write my Game 6 projection later, but I am still confident in this team. The last two games will be at home where the Royals are 4-1 against the Giants this year. This team has proven in the past season that they can come back and win games. They will have the better pitcher on the mound in Game 6 and have a slight pitching advantage in Game 7. Last but not least in a season where so many are drawing parallels to 1985, the Royals came back to Kansas City down 3 game to 2 and won. So if Kansas City is going to party like it is 1985 they are going to have to win like it is 1985.