SF 3, KC 2: Giants win 3rd World Series title in 5 years after Game 7 triumph

Pablo Sandoval went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and Madison Bumgarner threw five scoreless innings in relief as the San Francisco Giants edged the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in Game 7 to win their third World Series title in the past five seasons.

The Royals were 90 feet away from forcing extra innings in the bottom of the ninth, but Bumgarner got Salvador Perez to pop out to Sandoval in foul territory to give the Giants their eighth World Series title - tied for fourth-most all time. 

Alex Gordon hit a seemingly harmless two-out single to center field with two outs in the final inning, but Gregor Blanco horribly misplayed it, allowing the ball to travel all the way to wall. Gordon advanced to third on the fielding error, setting up the nail-biting conclusion to the final game of 2014.

Bumgarner's shutdown performance out of the bullpen earned him the win as well as MVP honors. The lefty, who tossed 21 innings of one-run ball over three games in the Fall Classic (0.43 ERA), earned a rare five-inning save after taking the ball from Jeremy Affeldt who was credited with the win. Bumgarner tossed 68 pitches and yielded only two hits on just two days' rest after throwing a 117-pitch shutout in Game 5 on Sunday.

Michael Morse delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the top of the fourth inning to put the Giants up 3-2, which held up as the winning run after Bumgarner effectively shut down the Royals.

The Giants jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second inning, but the Royals quickly answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame. Alex Gordon delivered an RBI double and Omar Infante plated Gordon with a sacrifice fly later in the inning to knot the contest at 2-2.

Giants starter Tim Hudson lasted only 1 2/3 innings - the shortest start in Game 7 of a World Series in 54 years (Bob Turley, 1960). He also became the oldest hurler at 39 years of age to ever pitch Game 7 of the World Series. Regardless of his poor outing, he is now a first-time World Series champion.

Starting pitchers' lines

X-factor

Morse enjoyed his first multi-RBI game of the postseason. The veteran drove in the game-winning run in the fourth inning and opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly that scored Sandoval in the second. Playing on the road for the series finale actually played into the Giants' hands. Manager Bruce Bochy elected to only use Morse as a designated hitter or a pinch-hitter throughout the series due to his lingering oblique injury, which hampered his ability to play the outfield.

World Series news and notes

• The last team to win a road Game 7: The Willie Stargell-led Pirates beat the Orioles in Game 7 at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium on Oct. 17, 1979. 

• The Giants become the first team to win three titles in a five-year span since the New York Yankees won four from 1996-2000.

• The Giants have won 10 straight postseason series (including the 2014 wild-card game), the longest such streak in National League history. Only the 1998-2001 Yankees have produced a longer win streak at 11 straight postseason series wins (via Elias Sports).

• Sandoval's 26 hits this October are a new single-postseason record.