Seize the Sixth

It was the last day of baseball in San Francisco for the season, but it's not yet time for a retrospective of an interesting year.  Monday's a travel day before the sixth game of the World Series, so that's topic A.

It's looked like a seven game series and it may yet turn out to be.  But I'm feeling more and more that the Giants have the edge in the sixth game.  I base a lot of that on how the Giants have improved as the series has gone on.  They've now seen the entire pitching staff and hit starters, middle and late relievers.  This is their second look at Ventura, a young fireballer.  Curt Schilling said something interesting at ESPN.  He said Ventura is a thrower, not a pitcher.  He expects the Giants to be looking for fastballs to hit.  If Ventura's stuff is not exceptional, they could get to him.

Then what does Yost do?  He has to go all out with his staff, none of whom (except for his closer and his 7th game starter) have gone untouched.

On the Giants side, Jake Peavy is a veteran who has been in pressure situations before.  He knows that this is potentially the game of his life.  He pitched well in the second game, and that hellish inning wasn't entirely or even mainly his fault.

Nobody knows what pitchers have until the game is well underway.  But I think Peavy has the edge this time.  And the Giants have a "rested and ready" bullpen (as reliever Jeremy Affeldt said.)  So far the Royals have not touched Petit or (in a couple of innings) Lincecum, and hardly grazed Affeldt, Lopez, Cassia and Romo.

This is the Giants' second trip to Kansas City this Series.  It didn't bother them in the first game, which they won.  So it's unlikely to bother them tomorrow.  They have two games to win one, but the Royals must win tomorrow--that can help them, and that can hurt them.  The Giants, many of whom have felt World Series victory, can smell it.  They won't get tentative.

The Giants bats are hot, the Royals are cold, and though that can change, it looks more to me like series adjustments by the Giants hitters, and their pitchers. Every game is itself, but I like the Giants today.