Royals-Giants World Series Preview

For the first time in the open postseason era, two teams with less than 90 regular season wins will square off in the World Series. Those teams are the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants. The two squads will battle for the Commissioner’s trophy starting Tuesday at 8:07 p.m. in Kansas City.

Kansas City punched their ticket to the World Series through strong defensive play, timely hitting and smart base running. They defeated the Oakland Athletics 9-8 in 12 innings in the wild card play-in game, which set up a matchup with the Los Angeles Angels in the Divisional round. The Royals gave up six runs combined in their three game sweep of the Angels, winning the first two games in extra innings thanks to home runs from Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer. Kansas City then swept the upstart Baltimore Orioles, winning all four games by two runs or less in each game. This marks the Royals first World Series appearance since 1985.

For the Giants, pitching and late-inning hitting has led them to their third World Series appearance in the past five years. San Francisco won the championship in 2010 and 2012, defeating the Texas Rangers and the Detroit Tigers respectively. The Giants defeated Pittsburgh 8-0 in the play-in game, and then defeated the Washington Nationals 3-1, including a 2-1 win in game two that lasted 18 innings and a postseason record six hours and 23 minutes. San Francisco then won a grind-it-out series over the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1, with all five games being decided by three runs or less.

Game one will feature a matchup between pitchers’ Madison Bumgarner (18-10 in regular season for SF), and James Shields (14-8 for KC).

The rest of the World Series schedule will go as follows:

Wed, Oct. 22 @ Kansas City, 8 p.m.

Fri, Oct. 24 @ San Francisco, 8 p.m.

Sat, Oct. 25 @ San Francisco, 8 p.m.

Sun, Oct. 26 @ San Francisco, 8 p.m.

Tue, Oct. 28 @ Kansas City, 8 p.m.

Wed, Oct. 29 @ Kansas City, 8 p.m.

All games will be broadcasted on FOX.

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