Post-season Gameday Thread, #16: Will Royals get flushed?

5:07pm Arizona time, Fox: Giants lead 1-0

Jake Peavy RHP, 1-0, 1.86

Yordano Ventura RHP, 0-0, 4.85

Gregor Blanco - CF	Alcides Escobar - SS
Joe Panik - 2B	Norichika Aoki - RF
Buster Posey - C	Lorenzo Cain - CF
Pablo Sandoval - 3B	Eric Hosmer - 1B
Hunter Pence - RF	Billy Butler - DH
Brandon Belt - 1B	Alex Gordon - LF
Mike Morse - DH	Salvador Perez - C
Travis Ishikawa - LF	Omar Infante - 2B
Brandon Crawford - SS	Mike Moustakas - 3B

Yep, the Cinderella Royals turned back into a set of nine pumpkins, pretty much as soon as the clock struck "World Series." Now, it's not an insurmountable situation they find themselves in, though the numbers obviously give the Giants an advantage: 63% of the time, whoever wins Game 1 takes the World Series. However, the last time Kansas City were here, they lost the first two at home, and still prevailed. Even a blowout loss isn't necessarily an omen of things to come: the last three teams to drop the opening game by 6 or more at home, all went on to win the World Series (the Yankees in 1945, the Cardinals in 1982 and, most recently, the Yankees in 1996).

I'm looking forward to seeing fireballing Ventura, whom I recall blew the Diamondbacks away when we faced him in the regular season. He's the first rookie ever to start a World Series game for the Royals, and none of the Giants have faced him before. That'll be an experience, since they can expect to see pitches at 100 mph or more coming toward them, something not often delivered by a starter. Conversely, the likely Kansas City starting lineup has hit Peavy around to the tunr of .313 with seven homers and a .510 SLG. It would appear to give the Royals the edge going into tonight - but can they convert that into a series-leveling win?