The San Francisco Giants dropped Game 2 of the World Series today, October 22, falling to the Kansas City Royals 2-7.

The game started off well enough for San Francisco. In the first, center fielder Gregor Blanco led off and put the seventh pitch he saw over the fence.

The Royals rallied in the bottom of the inning, tying the game on a single by designated hitter Billy Butler.

In the bottom of the second, Kansas City took the lead on two doubles, the second of which knocked in second baseman Omar Infante.

In the third, the Giants answered with doubles of their own. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval led off the inning with one, and two batters later, first baseman Brandon Belt drove him home on a double of his own.

San Francisco starter Jake Peavy wasn’t great, but was far from terrible for most of the game. In the sixth, he walked the lead-off batter and gave up a single to the next Royal, leading Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy to go to his bullpen.

That’s when the wheels fell off.

Jean Machi came in, threw two pitches, gave up an RBI single to Butler, and was yanked in favor of lefty specialist Javier Lopez. Lopez got left fielder Alex Gordon to fly out, but with the right-handed catcher Salvador Perez coming to bat, Bochy replaced him with rookie Hunter Strickland. Strickland, who has had his problems with control, came in with runners on first and second.

After a wild pitch to move the runners over, Strickland gave up a bases clearing double to Perez, and then gave up a home run to the next batter, Infante.

That brought the score to 7-2, which is all the Royals needed.

Kansas City manager Ned Yost went to his highly touted bullpen, who delivered. The Royals’ terrible trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland combined to pitch 3 ⅔ innings, giving up no runs on just one hit, and striking out six Giants’ batters.

With the result, the series is tied 1-1, going to San Francisco. The series will resume Friday at 5 p.m. The Giants will send out veteran Tim Hudson, who at the age of 39 years old will be making his first World Series start. Kansas City will put out Stanford alum Jeremy Guthrie to face him.