Baseball – Page 26 – North Platte Post Archive

Royals Beat Giants 3-2 for 2-1 World Series Lead

Posted on October 24, 2014October 24, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jeremy Guthrie pitched shutout ball into the sixth inning, Lorenzo Cain drove in an early run off Tim Hudson and made a pair of nifty catches, and the Kansas City Royals beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2 Friday night to take a 2-1 World Series lead.

Cain’s RBI groundout three batters in put the Royals ahead, and Kansas City expanded its lead to 3-0 in the sixth when Alex Gordon hit an RBI double off Cain and scored on Eric Hosmer’s single off left-hander Javier Lopez.

San Francisco finally got to Guthrie in the bottom of the sixth when pinch-hitter Michael Morse hit an RBI double over third base just past the glove of a diving Michael Moustakas and scored on Buster Posey’s groundout against Kelvin Herrera.

Herrera, Brandon Finnegan, Wade Davis and Greg Holland combined for four innings of hitless relief, the longest in a Series game in 22 years.

Konerko, Rollins 1st Co-Winners of Clemente Award

Posted on October 24, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Retiring White Sox star Paul Konerko and Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins are the first co-winners of Major League Baseball’s Roberto Clement Award.

The annual honor is given for contributions on and off the field that best represent the sport and is named for the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer, who died on Dec. 31, 1972, in a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission to assist earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Konerko founded the “Bring Me Home Campaign,” which also includes a pair of former teammates: retired great Jim Thome and the Los Angeles Angels’ Gordon Beckham. The campaign says it has raised nearly $450,000 to assist foster children in Illinois.

Rollins developed JRoll’s Aces in 2007 through The Rollins Family Foundation to provide tickets to children in disadvantaged areas who excel in academics.

Royals Shift Cain to Tricky Right Field for Game 3

Posted on October 24, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain has been moved from center field to right for Game 3 of the World Series to boost defense in one of AT&T Park’s trickiest positions.

Kansas City manager Ned Yost made the move Friday night with the best-of-seven matchup 1-all. Usual right fielder Nori Aoki is not in the starting lineup, while Jarrod Dyson is starting in center field and batting eighth.

Alex Gordon, who batted sixth in Games 1 and 2 this week at Kauffman Stadium, has moved up into the No. 2 hole as the Royals lose their designated hitter — Billy Butler — in the NL ballpark.

With the loss of the DH, San Francisco’s Michael Morse is out. The rest of the lineup the same behind starter Tim Hudson, making his World Series debut at age 39 and after 16 major league seasons.

Orange-Clad Marlins Fan Stands out at World Series

Posted on October 24, 2014

MIAMI (AP) — Among the standouts at the World Series has been a Miami Marlins fan in the front row behind home plate.

Laurence Leavy’s orange Marlins jersey made him easy to spot at Games 1 and 2 amid a sea of Kansas City Royals blue. He says a Royals official approached him offering to move him to the team owner’s suite, but Leavy (pronounced Leh’-vee) declined.

Two nights of network TV air time made Leavy a celebrity. Since the World Series began, his followers on Twitter have climbed from 175 to 6,800.

The 58-year-old South Florida attorney describes himself as a sports geek who can afford to go to games around the country because he has no wife or children. He has been traveling to big events for 15 years, buying tickets on the Internet.

World Series TV Ratings Increase from Game 1 to 2

Posted on October 23, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — Game 2 of the World Series stayed close deeper into the night, boosting television ratings.

The 12.9 million viewers Wednesday on Fox for the Kansas City Royals’ 7-2 win over the San Francisco Giants were an increase of 6 percent from Game 1. The 7.9 rating with a 14 share was still the second-lowest ever for a Game 2. The Giants’ 2-0 win over the Detroit Tigers in 2012 drew a 7.8/12.

The Giants’ 7-1 victory Tuesday earned a 7.3, a record low for a Game 1. San Francisco led 5-0 after four innings. On Wednesday, the game stayed tied into the sixth.

Ratings measure the percentage of homes with televisions tuned to a program, while shares represent the percentage of TVs in use at the time.

Royals Beat Giants 7-2, Even World Series 1-All

Posted on October 22, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Billy Butler hit a tiebreaking single, Salvador Perez and Omar Infante drove in two runs each with big hits in a five-run sixth inning, and the Kansas City Royals beat the San Francisco Giants 7-2 Wednesday night to even the World Series at one game apiece.

A night after the Giants opened with a 7-1 victory for their seventh straight Series win, Gregor Blanco led off the game with a home run against hard-throwing rookie Yordano Ventura. Brandon Belt tied the score 2-all with an RBI double in the fourth.

Butler’s single off Jean Machi drove in his second run of the night and put the Royals ahead 3-2. Perez lined a two-run double to the left-center wall for a three-run lead, and Infante homered into the left-field bullpen off Hunter Strickland.

Game 3 is Friday night in San Francisco.

World Series Rating for Opener Drops to Low

Posted on October 22, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A World Series opener involving the San Francisco Giants set a record low TV rating for the second time in three seasons.

San Francisco’s 7-1 win over Kansas City drew a 7.3 rating and 12.2 million viewers Tuesday night on Fox, according to fast national ratings by Nielsen Media Research.

That broke the previous low of a 7.6 rating and 12.2 million for the Giants’ 8-3 victory over Detroit in 2012. San Francisco’s 11.7 win over Texas in the 2010 opener got an 8.9 rating.

The rating for this year’s opener began with a 6.9 from 8:05-8:30 p.m. EDT and peaked at 8.5 in the half hour starting at 9 p.m. With the Giants scoring three runs in the first inning and leading 5-0 by the fourth, the rating ended at 5.7 from 11:30-11:41 p.m.

Still, Fox said Wednesday it expects to win the prime-time night and have its best Tuesday night since February 2012.

Fox Deportes averaged 273,000 viewers, a record for Spanish-language World Series coverage.

Bumgarner, Pence lead Giants over Royals 7-1

Posted on October 22, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Madison Bumganer took a two-hit shutout into the seventh inning, Hunter Pence hit a two-run homer off James Shields in a three-run first and the San Francisco Giants beat the Kansas City Royals 7-1 in Tuesday night’s World Series opener.

In a matchup of streaking teams, the Giants won their seventh Series game in a row dating to 2010 and ended a perfect postseason for the Royals, who had been 8-0. San Francisco also ended the Royals’ 11-game postseason winning streak dating to their 1985 title, one shy of the record set by the Yankees on two occasions.

Bumgarner extended his Series scoreless streak to 21 innings before Salvador Perez’s seventh-inning homer, which also ended Bumgarner’s record streak of 32 2-3 scoreless postseason road innings.

Shields allowed five runs and seven hits and needed 70 pitches to get nine outs.

The Game 1 winner has captured 15 of the last 17 titles.

Game 2 Starters Ventura, Peavy Study in Contrasts

Posted on October 21, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The starting pitchers for Game 2 of the World Series are a study in contrasts.

The Royals will send out rookie right-hander Yordano Ventura, who is from the Dominican Republic, grew up idolizing Pedro Martinez and now talks to him nearly every day.

The Giants will counter with veteran Jake Peavy, the right-handed hired gun who helped Boston win the World Series last year.

Both bring an element of the unknown into their World Series starts.

Ventura struggled in a relief stint during the Royals’ wild-card win over Oakland, though he pitched far better in postseason starts against the Angels and Orioles.

Peavy has had trouble against Kansas City throughout his career, especially at Kauffman Stadium.

Red Takes Series Finale with Walkoff Win

Posted on October 21, 2014

Lincoln – In a game that saw Bo Pelini (Blake Headley) play third base and a yellow teletubby (Wes Edrington) hit a home run off the left-field foul pole, the Red squad got a walkoff bases-loaded single by the White Power Ranger (Nathan Chunn) in the bottom of the sixth inning that gave the Reds a 5-4 win and a 2-1 series win in the annual Red-White Series.

On the second pitch of the game Edrington blasted a two-run homer off the left field foul pole to give the Whites a 2-0 lead. They added a run later in the inning for a 3-0 lead. The Reds would respond with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to make it a 3-2 game.

Edrington led off the third and reached on an error. After moving to third base, he scored on an RBI by the Blue Power Ranger (Tanner Lubach).

Trailing 4-2, the Reds cut the deficit to one run in the bottom of the fourth when the Red Power Ranger (Taylor Fish) scored on a fielding error.

With the series on the line and down to their final at bat, the Reds were quickly down to their final out after the Green Power Ranger (Jake Schleppenbach) and the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man (Steven Reveles) were reach retired to start the inning. Headley started a two-out rally when he was hit-by-pitch and then moved into scoring position on a base hit by a farmer (Scott Schreiber). Fish drove in the game-tying run with a base hit and then a piece of bacon (Jake Meyers) was hit-by-pitch to load the bases. With two outs, Chunn stepped in and lined a single into left field for the game winning RBI.

The Huskers now enter Winter Conditioning in preparation for the 2015 season. Nebraska opens the 2015 campaign with a three-game series against UNLV in Las Vegas, with the season opener set for Friday, Feb. 13.