It's safe to say a baseball dynasty has formed in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in Game 7 of the World Series to capture the team's third championship in the past five years — a feat only five other teams have achieved in Major League Baseball history.
Despite an early exit from Giants' starter Tim Hudson in the second inning after giving up two runs, San Francisco's bullpen — or should we say, pitcher Madison Bumgarner — pulled through and didn't allow another run for the rest of the game.
Bumgarner also walked away with the Most Valuable Player award. The towering lefty was virtually unhittable in the series and now holds the World Series record for lowest ERA in history among pitchers who've thrown more than 30 innings. The Giants won all three games Bumgarner took the mound.
Offensively, right fielder Hunter Pence and third baseman Pablo Sandoval propelled the Giants, both posting huge World Series numbers with .350-plus batting averages and contributing four or more runs and RBIs throughout the series.
San Francisco held off a hungry and scrappy Royals team, which hadn't won a championship or even made the playoffs in nearly three decades.
After winning the first game of the Fall Classic, the Giants fell behind the Royals 2-1 in the series. They battled back though. And after a back-and-forth series, San Francisco finally put the Royals' dreams to bed after pure dominance from Bumgarner.
Looking back, both teams battled the odds to even make it to the World Series. San Francisco and Kansas City were Wild Card teams and had to squeeze by a one-game playoff to make it to their divisional series.
The World Series has gone to seven games 10 times since 1979. The previous nine teams playing on the road have lost those battles. The Giants, however, curbed that trend Wednesday night.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
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