Late drama leaves Royals reeling

AlexGordon

The San Francisco Giants held onto win game seven at Kauffman Stadium 3-2 but not before Alex Gordon's stunning single-turn-triple with two out in the ninth inning.

Gordon got just the second hit off eventual World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner for the night, as the star pitcher threw five scoreless innings in a devastating save.

However, Gordon was on the verge of a rare inside-the-park home run after Giants outfielder Gregor Blanco mis-read the bouncing ball, and Juan Perez failed to take the ball cleanly from the back fence.

But Gordon pulled up at third, so as to not risk losing the ball game at home plate, before Salvador Perez popped up a simple catch to Pablo Sandoval in foul territory to render Gordon's stunning play irrelevant.

Gordon said he flirted with the idea of trying to tie up the game at 3-3.

"When it got by him [Blanco], I got a smile on my face running the bases, hopefully thinking to score," Gordon said. 

"But they got to it quickly enough, and I don't have [team-mate Jarrod] Dyson's speed, so I couldn't make it all the way to home."

Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer said he thought Gordon was going to go for home.

"When Blanco bobbled it, trying to pick it up there, yeah," Hosmer conceded.

"He gave it his all. He put his head down and ran and that's all you can do in that situation. It just didn't work out for us."

Winning Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt said he panicked when Gordon got to third base and hailed Bumgarner's composure to get the final out without the game going to extra innings.

"I was on the bench, and I was thinking, 'You gotta be kidding me, we can't make this easy, can we?'" Affeldt said.

"There's the tying run, we're going to go 18 innings. It's going to be a crazy deal. 

"But Bum, he's the guy you know is going to be calm enough to get through that situation. He didn't react. I panicked a little bit.

"I don't think anybody in Kansas City should be disappointed in that team. 

"They've been waiting for that for a long time and that team is really good. 

"They're young and they're going to be good for a long time. 

"I don't think it's going to be their last World Series, I really don't."

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