World Series Preview: Game 3 questions

October 23, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tim Hudson (17) addresses the media in a press conference during workouts the day before game three of the 2014 World Series at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Game Info:
Staring pitchers: Jeremy Guthrie (KC) vs Tim Hudson (SF)
Series tied at 1-1

With the World Series now even at 1-1, the Fall Classic moves to the Bay Area, and one question is: Can the San Francisco Giants do to the Kansas City Royals what they did to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS? What they did was split the first two games on the road, then win three straight at home?

They now have that opportunity.

How will the Royals play without Billy Butler in the lineup, with the NL stadium not having a spot for a designated hitter? That is an interesting question, considering that the Royals like to play small ball, and don’t rely on the home run. My guess would be not as much as some AL teams, not to mention both teams pitchers are hitting neither team has that much of an advantage.

Here is another question … Which team will show up for either side?

Will it be the Giants team that dominated in Game 1, or the Royals that played their style of baseball in Game 2?

I think a lot of that is going to come down to pitching, where in my opinion the Giants have a little bit of an edge. Hudson is one of the better pitchers in all of baseball, even though he is older.

If Hudson can control his emotions, he will be able to induce the ground ball and the contact hitting Royals may hit into some double plays regardless of their speed.

Guthrie is a good pitcher, and was able to handle a long layoff before he pitched last time out. However, Hudson is still a notch above Guthrie.

Here is an interesting angle on the game, and that will be the crowd at AT&T Park.

Giants fans have an ability to be very loud, and when that happens the atmosphere can be very tough to deal with. While I think this Royals team is adept at dealing with difficult environments as they did in Baltimore, the Giants will have the edge when momentum swings back-and-forth.

Overall, these next three games are crucial to the Giants. If they can close out the series, or head back to Kansas City with the lead they will be in good shape.

Anything else is unacceptable, due to the fact that it is hard to win both games six and seven on the road.

I think the Giants will either win two of the next three, or win the World Series by Sunday.