The San Francisco Giants won the first game of the 2014 World Series 7-1, and lead the series by one game. Everything that could have gone wrong for the Royals, went wrong as starting pitcher James Shields gave up five earned runs in 3+ innings pitched. San Francisco picked up an impressive win in front of hostile, and energetic, Kansas City crowd.

Starter James Shields struggled in three innings on Tuesday (Courtesy of Royals Review)

Kansas City cannot let this loss sit with them if it is going to win the World Series. The team has to put this loss behind them and get read for tomorrow’s game…and prepare to win it. That being said, this loss is probably eating at the players and the coaches.

From an emotional stand point, the Royals’ blowout loss in the first game of the World Series is crushing for Kansas City. Getting dominated at home — in the middle of eight game winning streak, with your ace on the mound — is a tough pill to swallow. But the Royals are going to have to move on very quickly, and prepare for Wednesday’s game.

The Royals loss is even worse when you realize that the team that won the first game of the fall classic, has won 10 of the last 11 titles. Included in that stat is the Boston Red Sox 13-1 route of the Colorado Rockies in the first game of the 2007 World Series, Boston ended up sweeping the Rockies in four games.

As crazy as it might sound, comparing the 2014 Royals and the 2007 Rockies isn’t that bad of a comparison. Those 2007 Rockies, managed by Clint Hurdle, used a hot September to secure the franchise’s second playoff appearance — thanks to the Wildcard — and swept their way through the NLDS and NLCS before getting dominated by the Red Sox in the World Series.

The 2014 Royals captured the first Wildcard spot and made a frantic, late inning, comeback to beat Oakland in the play-in game. Kansas City followed that win up by sweeping the ALDS and ALCS to advance to the World Series. In the first two rounds, and the Oakland game, KC played in four extra-inning contest; the Royals played in eight games prior to Tuesday’s loss to the Giants.

For San Francisco, this victory is exactly what the team needed to start this series off right. A blow out road win in which the Giants starting pitcher, and ace, Madison Bumgarner dominated the (previously hot hitting) Royals is encouraging. But the team as to take care of business on Wednesday if they are going to really build a dominating lead in the series.

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