KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The long baseball season comes to an end tonight with the seventh and deciding game of the World Series.
Wednesday night’s starting pitching has 39-year old Tim Hudson going to the mound for the Giants against Jeremy Guthrie of the Royals. This is a rematch of the Game 3 starters when the Royals won 3-2. Hudson is the oldest man to ever start a World Series seventh game.
The San Francisco Giants are also starting Juan Perez over Travis Ishikawa in left field for Game 7 of the World Series against the Kansas City Royals.
Ishikawa is primarily a first baseman and made eight outfield appearances during the regular season. He is a better hitter than Perez, but Perez is a better defender.
Perez also started in Game 4 at AT&T Park. He is 3 for 9 in the Series with three RBIs.
Ishikawa is 3 for 13 in the Series with no RBIs.
The Royals “earned” home field advantage for tonight’s game by virtue of the American League All Stars winning the All-Star Game last July.
The Giants are trying to win their third championship five years; the Royals their second since 1985.
“I thought it’d be, you know, tight games like the other two playoff series that we had, but so far they haven’t. But it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out tonight,” said Ned Yost, Royals manager.
When asked about Salvador Perez, Royals catcher, starting his 158th game, Yost gushed with praise.
“He’s a real threat offensively, but for our pitching staff that’s where the vast importance comes. Especially, you know with young pitchers like Ventura, and guys like Guthrie, guys like Shields you know, he’s worked really hard to develop a relationship with these guys, and his main focus is to get them through the game anyway that he can. And his attitude and his, his competitiveness I guess is the right word for it, is a little bit contagious, you know. Our guys are really competitive but, you know, he is a guy that never gets down, ever. He’s always got a smile on his face, he’s always a guy that stays after it and is encouraging no matter what,” Yost said.