Multi-day layoff could affect both Royals, Giants

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Alex Gordon took a big rip at a batting-practice fastball, fouled it off badly into the cage, and ducked when the carom nearly hit him in the head.

Gordon let out a huge laugh, and so did a bunch of his Royals teammates watching Monday’s workout.

“I can’t believe that just happened, dude,” pitcher James Shields razzed.

It’ll be more frustrating than funny if those are the same awkward swings the Royals and San Francisco Giants take once the World Series begins.

Going into Game 1 on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium, both teams will deal with a familiar issue this deep in the postseason: Does an extended layoff translate into rest or rust?

Buster Posey and the Giants zipped through the playoffs, and now will try for their third title in five years. Lorenzo Cain and the Royals zoomed along, reaching the Series for the first time since 1985.

And then, they all got some time off. Almost an eternity, by October standards.

The Royals went 8-0 in the AL playoffs, giving them five idle days before Shields starts the opener. San Francisco went 8-2 on the NL side and had four days to relax before Madison Bumgarner pitches.

“It’s definitely different because we have played so many games over the last 7 1/2, eight months. But you just understand it’s one of those things,” Posey said.

As recent history has shown, hitters can be very vulnerable when they get out of rhythm.

“It affects a bit with your timing, especially when trying to adjust to pitchers,” Kansas City second baseman Omar Infante said. “It’s hard to recover that groove you have.”

The Giants and Royals held practices, studied video and checked out scouting reports. But as several teams that stumbled in the World Series after long breaks discovered, nothing can duplicate playing a real game.

Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and Detroit got nearly a week off in 2012, then the Tigers hit a combined .159 and totaled six runs in getting swept by the Giants.

Troy Tulowitzki and the Colorado Rockies rushed into the 2007 World Series, waited a week and got outscored 29-10 in Boston’s sweep.

A year earlier, Magglio Ordonez and the Tigers looked so powerful in the playoffs, but fell apart a week later and hit only .199 in a five-game loss to St. Louis.

Infante played on both of those Detroit teams that got wiped out. He actually excelled in 2012, hitting .333.

“It’s a short series, you need some luck. We lost four in a row and they were coming from playing seven. In this series, I think both teams are even,” he said.

At the mike – Country singer Trisha Yearwood will sing the national anthem before Game 1 on Tuesday and the country quartet Little Big Town will sing before Game 2. Former “American Idol” winner Phillip Phillips will sing before Game 3, then Carlos Santana and his son will do an instrumental rendition of the anthem prior to Game 4.

Bay Area fan – Royals manager Ned Yost grew up a Giants fan — he said Monday that he wore out 15 Giant hats — but he also attended many Oakland A’s games because he lived in Dublin, Calif., on the east side of the San Francisco Bay.

But he wasn’t at Oakland Coliseum as a paying customer.

“I hate to say this, but we used to sneak in,” Yost said Monday during a news conference. “We’d hop the fence and hide in the bathroom until BP started, and we’d run out and shag fly balls and catch them.”

Yost also retold the story of how he got Vida Blue’s autograph and turned it into a snack.

“I ran down to get his autograph, but I didn’t have anything for him to sign. The only thing I had was a dollar bill,” Yost said. “And I was the happiest guy in the stadium until about the sixth inning, and I got hungry and I spent it on a Colossal Dog.”

About 20 years later, Yost said Blue gave him an autographed dollar bill at a clinic they ran together.

AL rules – Games 1 and 2, and if needed, 6 and 7, will be played at Kauffman Stadium and under American League rules, so the Giants will need a designated hitter.

For Game 1 it will be Michael Morse, who played 84 games in left field and 43 at first base in the regular season. Giants manager Bruce Bochy was asked if he might use Juan Perez in left field and move NLCS Game 5 hero Travis Ishikawa to DH because of the large outfield in Kansas City.

“I don’t see any changes right now with how we’re going to start the game, and that’s Ishi in left field,” Bochy said. “But we know we have that option of a guy that’s probably a little faster.”

Favorite pitchers – Yost and Madison Bumgarner may share a taste in favorite pitchers.

Bumgarner, the Giants’ Game 1 starter, was a Braves fan growing up in North Carolina and listed Atlanta’s big three — John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux — as some of the pitchers he looked up to. Yost was a coach in Atlanta during that era.

“I just liked watching good pitching, really,” Bumgarner said. “I remember Randy Johnson, there were a lot of guys, Kevin Brown. The list could go on.”

The umpires – Ted Barrett, who was the crew chief for the Royals-Angels AL Division Series, is among the three-regular-season crew chiefs on the World Series umpiring crew.

The others are Jeff Nelson, who will serve as the replay official for Games 1 and 2, and Jeff Kellogg, who was in charge for the the Orioles-Tigers ALDS, is the crew chief for the World Series.

In Game 1, Jerry Meals will serve as the home-plate umpire and Eric Cooper will work first base, Jim Reynolds second base, Ted Barrett third base, Hunter Wendelstedt left field and Kellogg right field. Meals will become the replay official in Game 3 and Nelson will join the on-field crew.

This story was originally published October 21, 2014 at 6:11 AM with the headline "Multi-day layoff could affect both Royals, Giants."