Madison Bumgarner continues his World Series dominance and quiets the Royals faithful.
Madison Bumgarner continues his World Series dominance and quiets the Royals faithful. (Getty Images)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Almost right off the bat, the upstart Royals got an idea what they were dealing with when their second hitter on this beautiful World Series night here, Norichika Aoki, nailed a liner eye-high at Giants ace starter Madison Bumgarner. The unflappable, almost impenetrable Bumgarner snagged the pellet like it was nothing. And in the end, the beloved Royals got just a little more than nothing against Bumgarner.

Talk about a party pooper. This baseball-crazed two-state area was primed to continue the celebration after a record eight consecutive postseason victories to begin their first active October since 1985. But in Game 1 in this World Series of wild-card entrants, Bumgarner showed everyone what it means to have been here before, and pitch like it.

Folks all over seemed excited about the prospect of the beloved Royals making new history after a 28-season respite from October. But Bumgarner, the young and tough lefty, provided a little history lesson, mixing well-placed 92-93-mph fastballs, cutters, occasional extra-slow curveballs (67 mph, one registered!) and his usual moxie to remind folks the Giants are the true October darlings of the decade in a 7-1 World Series-opening victory.

After one lopsided game, it's Dynasty 1, Destiny 0.

While we all got caught up in this magical ride of these young, upstart Royals, the Giants provided a stark reminder that this is their time, even if no one quite believes it. The Giants are installed as underdogs for just about every postseason series, and they've yet to fail to beat the doubters and critics. The Giants, neighbors of Moneyball, are somehow bidding to win their third World Series in five years before anyone outside their own organization can figure out exactly how they do it.

Though, it wasn't much of a mystery what went down in Game 1.

Bumgarner, pitching to postseason form, suffocated the Royals. He also pushed his World Series scoreless streak to 21 2/3 clean innings (almost two-thirds the way to legendary 86th birthday boy Whitey Ford's record 33 scoreless) before surrendering a homer to Salvador Perez in the seventh, after it was already 7-zip. In his seven innings, Bumgarner, who ran his postseason road record scoreless streak to 32 2/3 innings, allowed only three hits and one walk over seven innings to the red-hit Royals.

"Bumgarner was dynamite," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Man, was he good."

"He doesn't get flustered," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Bumgarner, whose nickname MadBum is decidedly unlovable, might not be quite the best pitcher in baseball, but he just might be the toughest. Even the inning where the Royals put runners on second and third with no outs (one of those base runners reached on an error by normally slick-fielding Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford), he held them scoreless. Twice, the Royals lined balls right back at Bumgarner, and twice he nonchalantly gloved them.  The kid seems fearless.

Bochy, whose ticket to Cooperstown is already punched thanks to this continuing, almost inexplicable run, called it "a maniacal focus." And he meant that in the best way possible.

Bumgarner didn’t need much help, but the Giants gave him plenty against James "Big Game" Shields, whose postseason performance this October (7.11 ERA) doesn't match his nickname. Giants leadoff man Gregor Blanco started things with a hit to center field (it isn't easy finding turf in front of Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain) and by the time Hunter Pence (whose real sign should read, "He Loves to Rake in the Posteason") homered just to the right of straight-away center field, it was 3-0.

Through his energy (he rarely misses an inning, much less a game), enthusiasm and passion, Pence has made himself into a leader out west, and Bochy called him "the lowest-maintenance player I've ever had." He and Pablo Sandoval are also the toughest to figure, as they are two terrific bad-ball hitters -- like a great hero of Octobers past, Yogi Berra. Yost said Pence is difficult because his "strike zone is so big," which is actually the opposite of the way it's supposed to be.

Anyway, 10 minutes into the game, Bumgarner, who was already the NLCS MVP, had more support than he could use.

The Royals, who are transfixing this two-state area and even capturing the imagination of this country, are everyone's favorite team for the story. And true to their nature, they seemed composed after the opening clunker. "It would have been nice to go 12-0 ... pretty cool," Alex Gordon said. "But we still won eight straight for the record, and we're satisfied with that. We'll have to start a new streak now."

The Royals have been celebrated throughout the country. Meantime, the Giants, as per usual, remain unfairly overlooked.

But three games from a trio of World Series titles, no one should consider this a fluke. The Royals had their own streak. The Giants? They are working on winning their 10th consecutive playoff series. That can't be luck. Not even close. At the very least, this series no longer looks like the crapshoot most folks think the postseason is cracked up to be.

Not many can even try to explain it. But Brandon Belt said, "Honestly, we just know how to win in these situations. It seems like we do all the little things that add up."

For sure, they aren't a story to match the Royals, who have been waiting since 1985 to get back to the World Series. But nonetheless, it’s quite a shock to most of us the Giants are back here. They won one fewer game than the Royals to qualify as a wild-card team (same as the Royals), and unlike Kansas City, lost a couple playoff games en route.

The Royals, as we all know, are trying to duplicate the tale of success from 1985, and that makes for a lovely story. But the Giants are endeavoring to make real history. Winning three World Series in five years isn’t easy, as the only ones to do it since World War II are the Yankees of the late '40s and '50s, the A's of the '70s and Yankees of late '90s and 2000.

If they make it, the Giants will be the first to do so without ever winning the most games in a season or ever winning acclaim as the best team of that year. But maybe, just maybe, we will all need to start rethinking how we view them.