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Royals force Game 7 with 10-0 win over Giants

Oct 29, 2014 - 4:09 AM Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Mike Moustakas smoked a double inside the right-field line, opening the flood gates.

Nori Aoki slapped a single through the left side, Lorenzo Cain dropped a bloop hit into center and Eric Hosmer bounced a double over a drawn-in infield.

By the time Billy Butler ended a half-hour rally with a gapper to the outfield wall, the party was well underway in front of 40,000 fans.

And just like that, two innings into a game they had to win, the Kansas City Royals renewed their hopes of a first World Series title in 29 years.

Seven hits keyed a relentless seven-run rally in the second inning on Tuesday night and the Royals beat the San Francisco Giants 10-0 to force a Game 7.

The AL-champion Royals, loosening their collars in a big way after being shut out by Madison Bumgarner in Game 5, snapped a 16-inning scoreless streak with the biggest World Series inning in franchise history.

The perennial down-and-outers from the AL Central will now get a chance to host the biggest spectacle in baseball on Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

How good were things on Tuesday? Omar Infante ran through a stop sign at third base in the fifth inning, with his team leading 8-0, and looked dead-to-rights but for an artful head-first slide at home plate to beat the tag.

This was an all-time breather.

The Royals, after starting the postseason with eight straight wins, suddenly stared elimination in the face after scoring just four runs over the last 21 innings in San Francisco.

Every player in the Royals starting lineup had at least one hit. Moustakas got two, including a homer in the seventh inning to make it 10-0, dropping a bonfire on the birthday cake.

It was the most lopsided World Series shutout since Kansas City's 11-0 win over St. Louis in Game 7 in 1985.

Not that Yordano Ventura needed much help.

The 23-year-old rookie threw seven shutout innings, walking five but giving up just three hits while striking out four. Ventura dedicated his start to Oscar Taveras, the St. Louis Cardinals rookie who died along with his girlfriend in a car crash on Sunday in his native Dominican Republic.

The was a moment of silence before the game to honor Taveras, who was buried Tuesday. Ventura, who is from the Dominican Republic, wrote Taveras' initials and uniform number on his hat, along with "R.I.P."

"He had that look in his eye," said Royals manager Ned Yost. "It didn't matter how many runs we scored he was going to go out and win that game."

Fellow right-hander Jake Peavy, 10 years Ventura's senior, got just four outs and lost for the second time in the series.

The starters for Game 7 will be veteran righties Jeremy Guthrie for the Royals and Tim Hudson for the Giants. San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy shrugged off the notion that Bumgarner could start on two days' rest, but said he will be available to pitch out of the bullpen, as expected.

"This guy's human. You can't push him too much," Bochy said. "We're confident in Hudson."

Before their seven-run inning Tuesday, the Royals hadn't scored since taking a 4-1 lead with a four-run flurry in the third inning on Saturday. The Giants rallied to win that game 11-4, then took Sunday's Game 5 by a 5-0 count behind Bumgarner.

The Giants had scored 15 straight runs entering Game 6, moving within one win of their third World Series title in five years.

"The best thing about this game is we get to wash it off," said Bochy. "It's exciting. We're going into a seventh game. It's good for baseball."

The Royals improved to 7-0 this postseason when scoring the first run. Their rally in the second inning started in the bottom of the lineup after Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez opened with consecutive singles.

Peavy came out after giving up Moustakas' double and Aoki's bases-loaded hit, which gave the Royals a 2-0 lead.

Cain followed with his bloop two-run single, Hosmer's double bounced in front of the plate and scored two, and Butler's double split the center and right fielders to make it 7-0.

The Royals' seven hits in the inning came after they produced just four on Sunday against Bumgarner.

The Giants looked to pour a little water on Kansas City's fire after Ventura walked three batters in a row in the third, but Buster Posey grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Cain hit an RBI double off Jean Machi in the third for the Royals' eighth run.

The Royals were able to go without using bullpen stars Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland, who will be fresh for Game 7.

Home teams are 18-18 in World Series Game 7s, but have won each of the last nine since 1982.

Game Notes

Seven runs were the most the Royals have ever scored in one inning during a World Series game. It was the highest-scoring inning by a team in the World Series since the Giants got seven in the eighth inning of Game 2 against Texas in 2010 ... Ventura also started Game 2 last Wednesday, which the Royals won 7-2 ... The Giants used five pitchers, including starter Ryan Vogelsong.