Kansas City Royals rout San Francisco Giants 10-0 in game six

Yordano Ventura surrendered only three hits over seven shutout innings as the Kansas City Royals blanked San Francisco Giants 10-0 in game six to force a one-game showdown for the World Series crown on Tuesday.

The Royals tagged the Giants for seven runs on eight hits in the second inning and cruised from there to level Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final at 3-3 and force a title-deciding matchup Wednesday.

Kansas City’s Jeremy Guthrie, the game three winning pitcher, will open against game three loser Tim Hudson in a seventh-game meeting of right-handed starting pitchers.

Ventura, a 23-year-old Dominican rookie right-hander in a must-win situation, silenced Giants batters, striking out four while walking five as San Francisco never had a runner past second base and only two beyond first even as Kansas City batters blasted 15 hits to keep their title bid alive.

The Royals, who ended a 29-year playoff drought and won their first eight post-season games, took their only World Series crown in 1985, rallying to win the final two games at home to defeat St. Louis in seven games.

In eight of the past 10 times a team has returned home trailing the World Series 3-2, as Kansas City did this week, the hosts have won twice to take the title.

The Giants, who seek their eighth overall crown and third title in five seasons, fell to 5-9 in playoff game sixes.

Alex Gordon hit a leadoff single in the second, took third on a Salvador Perez single and scored on a Mike Moustakas double down the right-field line.

Alcides Escobar reached first on an infield grounder to load the bases and Japanese outfielder Nori Aoki, 0-for-9 to that point in the World Series, singled to left field to drive in Perez for a 2-0 Royals lead and send Giants starting pitcher Jake Peavy to the showers.

Lorenzo Cain then lofted a single into shallow centerfield off Giants reliever Yusmeiro Perez to score Moustakas and Escobar, doubling the Kansas City advantage.

Eric Hosmer followed with a double to centerfield to bring in Aoki and Cain, and Hosmer scored on Billy Butler’s double for a 7-0 Royals edge.

Omar Infante doubled and scored on a Cain double in the third to make it 8-0. Infante’s hit marked only the second time in World Series history a team’s nine starting batters all had a hit by the third inning, the other time by Arizona in 2001 in a 15-2 drubbing of the New York Yankees on the way to a seven-game Series title.

Infante singled again in the fifth and scored on a double by Escobar.

Moustakas blasted a solo home run off Giants reliever Hunter Strickland in the seventh for the Royals’ final run.

There was a moment of silence before game six of the World Series to honour St Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras, who died in a car accident over the weekend in the Dominican Republic.

The 22-year-old Taveras, who made his big league debut this season, was buried earlier Tuesday in a funeral attended by Cardinals manager Mike Matheny and general manager John Mozeliak.

One of the game’s top prospects, Taveras hit .239 with three homes in 80 games for St. Louis.

Officials are still investigating the cause of Sunday’s accident on a highway in the popular tourist region of Puerto Plata. Taveras’s 18-year-old girlfriend, Edilia Arvelo, was also killed.