Madison Bumgarner, Giants beat Royals in World Series Game 1, 7

James Shields screamed into his glove and then tore the black leather off his left hand, the act of a man who wished baseball came equipped with either a rewind button or a hole by the pitcher's mound large enough to crawl into and hide. One half of one inning of the 110th World Series had elapsed, and Shields, the player who bridged the Kansas City Royals ' irrelevance and eminence perhaps more than any other, already resembled a beaten man.

This city waited three decades to host the World Series, and in a matter of minutes it watched as the Royals' rampage through the American League playoffs went splat Tuesday night in Once the top of the a 7-1 Game 1 loss. San Francisco Giants' lineup pummeled Shields, they handed the ball to Madison Bumgarner, the 25-year-old left-hander with a pterodactyl's wingspan and a warden's disposition. Shields's misery yielded to Bumgarner's mastery. He allowed one run in seven three-hit innings, firing 106 pitches. Before Salvador Perez's solo homer in the seventh inning, Bumgarner had opened his World Series career with 21 ²/ ₃ scoreless innings.

The outcome formed in an instant, ordained once Shields allowed three runs in the first inning, two of them on Hunter Pence's rocket over the center field fence. The outburst meant Bumgarner pitching in the World Series with a lead, which meant deflation sweeping down boulevards, past fountains and across the plaza. Shields gave Bumgarner an opening, and Bumgarner suffocated the Royals, ending Kansas City's incredible postseason winning streak at eight.

Downtown Kansas City on Tuesday morning looked like a college campus on a fall Saturday, everyone decked out in team colors, interlocking KCs on hats and cursive 'Royals' across chests. The city had been electrified as its baseball team grew invincible. They waved towels and screamed half an hour before first pitch. During Giants introductions, fans eschewed boos for deafening chants of 'Let's Go Roy-als!'

The Royals had floated into the World Series by means both miraculous and impressive. They staved off elimination in the wild card game after they trailed the Oakland A's, 7-3, in the eighth inning. Their irrepressible athleticism and monstrous bullpen overwhelmed the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles. They had not lost since Sept. 27, and their ace walked to the mound.

Kansas City announced itself as an ascendant contender in December 2012, when it dealt top prospect Wil Myers and others for Shields and Wade Davis. Shields became the final piece of a team built through drafting and small free agent splashes. He helmed their staff, starting the wild-card game and Game 1 of the ALCS. They wanted to give him the ball.

In Kansas City's first World Series game since 1985, Shields threw batting practice. Amidst a frenzied crowd, center fielder Gregor Blanco led off with a line-drive single to center field. Buster Posey ripped another single. Pablo Sandoval golfed an RBI double into the right field corner. A relay throw to the plate nailed Posey and bailed Shields out, but only temporarily.

Pence dug in to the right-handed batter's box, wild-eyed and elastic-limbed. He swung through a fastball to make the count 2-2. He took one 94-mph fastball to run the count full and fouled off another, Shields unable to finish him off. Shields fired another fastball, belt high and over the plate's heart. Pence destroyed it. The Giants led, 3-0, and the park's noise was reduced to murmurs.

Shields survived a torrent of loud outs in the second and third innings, but he couldn't escape the fourth. Pence smoked a double down the left field line, Shields walked Brandon Belt and former Washington National Michael Morse roped a single to center. He pumped his fist as Pence motored home.

Royals Manager Ned Yost emerged from the dugout and pointed at the bullpen. Shields stood on the rubber and stared at Yost, ball in glove and glove on hip, as if he could not believe the sight of his manager coming to get him. In 295 career starts in both the playoffs and regular season, Shields had exited without recording an out past the third inning twice. Game 1 of the World Series made three.

The first batter reliever Danny Duffy faced was Juan Perez, a defensive replacement who entered the game in the fourth inning. Giants Manager Bruce Bochy knew Bumgarner had all the runs he required. Bumgarner escaped the only trouble he found, a no-out, second-and-third jam by striking out two in the third inning. Mostly, he stayed out of trouble. Once those two runners reached in the third, Bumgarner retired the next 12 hitters he faced.

The Giants are now 16-2 in their past 18 postseason games, and they stand three victories away from their third World Series championship in five years. Shields is in good company, because the Giants have also won games this postseason started by Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Adam Wainwright and Shelby Miller.

'These guys, they just know how to play in this situation,' said Steve Balboni, a slugging hero on the 1985 Royals and now a Giants scout. 'They play with high energy, high adrenaline and relax at the same time. They perform to their very best. It's pretty amazing to watch. You look at them during the season, it's not the same.'

The Royals must regroup from the suddenly foreign sensation of a loss, which they had not felt in nearly a month. The last team to sweep through the first two rounds of the playoffs, the 2007 Colorado Rockies, lost Game 1, 13-1, and was swept out of the World Series (by the Boston Red Sox). The Royals will attempt to avoid the same fate starting with right-hander Yordano Ventura, a 23-year-old rookie with a 100-mph fastball, in Game 2 on Wednesday night.

The Royals have proven this October they cannot be counted out. But now they face an opponent that has proven over several Octobers that it, perhaps, cannot be beaten this time of year. They will don blue again Wednesday in Kansas City, but they no longer feel quite so invincible.

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