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The World Series that nobody expected is almost here. In a year dominated by flashier teams with more famous players, the San Francisco Giants face the Kansas City Royals in a series featuring not one, but two teams that have been considered underdogs all postseason long. They’ve been upsetting teams left and right, but now they face each other to decide which is the true underdog to win a championship.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Royals Haven’t Lost Yet This Postseason
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The Royals came into the playoffs mostly as a nice story: a team that hadn’t even sniffed the postseason since 1985 made it to the Wild Card game. But they quickly established themselves as far more, becoming the first team in MLB history to win the first eight games of the postseason. Not that it was easy; most of those games were nail-biters to the very end, with several going to extra innings. They were able to eke out these close games with big series from their young core of players – big offensive numbers from Eric Hosmer and ALCS MVP Lorenzo Cain, clutch hitting and defense from star left fielder Alex Gordon, and an incredible run from their bullpen (particularly dominant set-up man Wade Davis) put them ahead of the pack and brought them an improbable AL pennant.
2. The Giants Are In Their Third World Series In Five Years
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It might be time to stop picking against the Giants. Few teams have as much postseason experience as them nowadays – they’ve missed the postseason twice in the last five years, but the other three times they’ve reached the World Series. In 2010 they were a young, pitching-heavy team that wasn’t expected to make much noise, and ended up having a relatively easy run to the team’s first championship since 1954, beating the Texas Rangers in five games. 2012 was much more difficult, as they had to come back from a 2-0 deficit in their NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds, and a 3-1 deficit against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS. But they persevered and clawed their way back to a sweep of the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
3. Both Teams’ Aces Face Off in Game 1
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The Royals and the Giants are looking to get off to a fast start this series, and both are lucky enough to have their aces going on solid rest. Kansas City will send their veteran starter James Shields to the mound. Shields is a known quantity that the Royals put a lot of trust in – they started him in their one-game Wild Card against Oakland and he pitched the clinching Game 3 against the Angels in the ALDS.
San Francisco has one of the best young aces in the game, Madison Bumgarner, who started their Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Games 1 and 5 of the NLCS against the Cardinals. Also, as we’ve documented before, he has never given up a run in 15 career World Series innings.
4. The Royals are Favored to Win
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Someone has to be the favorite in the Underdog Series, and the oddsmakers were apparently impressed enough with the Royals’ streak to make them the favorites in this series. Not that the Giants aren’t used to not being picked at this point.
5. They Are the two Unlikeliest Teams to Make the World Series
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Much has been made of how little either team was favored to make it this far, but it’s no exaggeration. Baseball Prospectus projected them as literally the two playoff teams least likely to reach the World Series. They gave the Giants a 4.9 percent chance to make it this far. The Royals? 2.7 percent. None of that matters now, though.
They’re the last two teams standing.
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2014 World Series: 5 Fast Facts You Need To Know