The story of game six of the World Series, inning by inning

1st

inning

Don’t stop running

The Royals missed a chance to strike first. Lorenzo Cain walked with two outs and Eric Hosmer followed with a single to left field where Travis Ishikawa gloved the ball and slipped. Third base coach Mike Jirschele waved Cain home, but he stopped short. Had Cain not halted, he likely would have scored. Billy Butler then grounded out to short and the threat ended. Yordano Ventura pitched a perfect top half.

2nd

Seventh heaven

Mike Moustakas’ double scored Alex Gordon and pushed Salvador Perez to third base. Omar Infante then struck out and fans worried that the Royals would miss out on a big inning. No worries. The hit parade started: Alcides Escobar (infield single), Nori Aoki (single to left), Cain (single to center), Hosmer (double) and Butler (double). When the dust settled, it was the biggest postseason inning in Royals history.

3rd

Double plays are nice

Ventura ran into a bit of trouble as he loaded the bases full of Giants with three consecutive walks. With the heart of the San Francisco lineup due up, this could have been trouble. Instead, Buster Posey grounded to Escobar, who stepped on second and threw to first for the double play. Infante doubled, Aoki walked with two outs and Cain crushed a double over Gregor Blanco’s head in center and Infante scored.

4th

Groundballs are gobbled up

San Francisco was hitting a lot of groundballs, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Pablo Sandoval hit one back to Ventura, who threw him out. Hunter Pence grounded out to Infante. While Brandon Belt singled, Michael Morse hit one to Escobar, who threw him out to tend the inning. The Royals’ bats took a breather as Perez’s single was the only hit of the inning. There were no complaints among fans.

5th

Running away with it

It was a breezy inning for Ventura. Hosmer took two groundballs to the bag all by himself after Ventura struck out Travis Ishikawa. The Royals put another run on the board as Infante singled and Escobar doubled. Third base coach Mike Jirschele had the stop sign out for Infante, but he did not break stride and almost ran into Jirschele on the way to scoring the ninth run of the game.

6th

Ventura can field, too

Perhaps it was the extra run of support (from eight to nine) or the fact that he was in a groove, but Ventura had an easy sixth inning. Sure, there was a two-out walk to Sandoval, but Ventura snared a ball hit by Pence and threw him out to end the inning. Butler led off the bottom half with a walk, but Gordon grounded into a double play and Hosmer struck out. Again, there were no complaints.

7th

What a night for Yordano

The Giants had a mini-rally of sorts as he issued a two-out walk to Ishikawa and Brandon Crawford followed with a single. Problem? Nope. Blanco popped out to Moustakas in foul ground to end the inning. And how many times have we seen this: the guy catching a routine pop-up to end an inning, then leads off with a homer? Maybe it’s not rare, but Moustakas crushed a homer to right.

8th

No scoring? No problem

Jason Frasor took over on the mound for the Royals and he allowed singles to two of the first three batters he faced. However, Pence popped up on the infield (Perez swallowed that up) and Belt struck out. Cain continued his fine postseason by walking to open the Royals half of the inning. After Hosmer struck out, Butler grounded into a double play and the Royals’ lead remained at 10.

9th

That’s a perfect 10

The bullpen door opened and out came ... Tim Collins. When that happens, you know that either something good or something bad is happening. It was a happy ninth inning this time. Although Greg Holland was warming up just in case, Collins allowed merely a one-out single and struck out a pair of batters. That meant that there would be a seventh game of the World Series.

This story was originally published October 28, 2014 at 11:55 PM with the headline "The story of game six of the World Series, inning by inning."