Royals vs. Giants: Game 4 Score and Twitter Reaction from 2014 World Series

Just as the Kansas City Royals had one finger on the Commissioner's Trophy, the San Francisco Giants exploded offensively in Game 4 to level the World Series at 2-2 with an 11-4 victory at AT&T Park on Saturday night.

Giants fans will be ecstatic that San Francisco evened the Fall Classic without having to use its ace in Game 4. Many wondered whether Madison Bumgarner would get the nod in this pivotal game, but Giants manager Bruce Bochy opted for Ryan Vogelsong.

"Vogelsong’s going tomorrow," Bochy said on Friday, per Sports Illustrated's Phil Taylor. "He’s done a pretty good job for us, so he’s going to have his start tomorrow. There is a confidence we have in Vogey."

In the end, Vogelsong's somewhat lackluster performance was a non-factor due to the Giants offense. San Francisco picked up 16 hits in the win, which tied for second-most for the franchise in the World Series, per SportsCenter:

With the win, Bochy became the fifth manager to pick up 40 playoff wins, per ESPN Stats & Info:

The story of the game was the complete implosion from the Royals bullpen. Jason Vargas, who started the game for Kansas City, left the game after four innings with three earned runs on six hits. He exited with the Royals ahead, 4-2.

Much has been made of Kansas City's strength in the bullpen, and a lot of that strength comes from the devastating trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. When manager Ned Yost has deviated from the script and gone to his relievers early in the game, bad things have happened, per MLB.com's Richard Justice:

Jason Frasor came on for Vargas in the bottom of the fifth and induced a groundout from Buster Posey, but allowed a single from Hunter Pence that scored Joe Panik and cut the Royals' lead to one run, 4-3.

Danny Duffy came on after that and promptly loaded the bases. Juan Perez hit a sacrifice fly that scored Pence and tied the game at 4-4.

Rather than have Duffy hit in the top of the sixth, Yost opted for Brandon Finnegan in the bottom half of the inning, which is when things unraveled for the Royals.

Posey and Gregor Blanco came home on a double from the hot-hitting Pablo Sandoval.

FoxSports.com's Erik Malinowski joked that the Giants third baseman is a master contract negotiator:

"

The Giants just messengered over a 14-year, $310 million contract to Sandoval on second.

— Erik Malinowski (@erikmal) October 26, 2014"

Many likely wondered why Yost hadn't pulled Finnegan at that point, but Grantland's Jonah Keri pointed out that left-handed pitching had dominated Sandoval during the regular season:

Brandon Belt made it a 7-4 game in the sixth with a run-scoring single.

With the Royals reeling, San Francisco broke the game open in the seventh. They added four more runs to all but seal the victory. All told, Kansas City's bullpen gave up eight earned runs on 10 hits in four innings pitched.

Contrast that with the Giants bullpen, which went 6.1 scoreless innings in relief of Vogelsong. Yusmeiro Petit was the standout performer and picked up the win after pitching three innings and surrendering only two hits.

According to MLB.com's Andrew Simon, Petit is the first relief pitcher in postseason history to go three or more scoreless innings on three occasions:

Before the Giants bullpen righted the ship, things were looking bleak early on for San Francisco, even though the hosts scored the opening run of the game.

With runners on the corners, Hunter Pence grounded to third base. Mike Moustakas glanced at Gregor Blanco, who froze at third, and quickly threw to second for a potential inning-ending double play. However, Pence reached first and Blanco scored to put the Giants on top, 1-0, in the first inning.

Rustin Dodd of The Kansas City Star questioned whether Royals shortstop Omar Infante should've tried to nail Blanco at home rather than get the double play:

Kansas City's luck turned around in the top of the third.

With two outs, Eric Hosmer stepped to the plate with runners on the corners. He grounded to Brandon Belt, which dragged the Giants first baseman off the bag. Belt tossed the ball to Vogelsong to end the inning, but Vogelsong lost track of the bag, and everybody was safe. Alex Gordon scored, and Lorenzo Cain advanced to second.

A walk to Moustakas loaded the bases and Infante delivered a single to center, which scored Cain and Hosmer and gave the Royals a 3-1 lead. Salvador Perez made it 4-1 with another single that was Vogelsong's last action of the game.

ESPN's Jayson Stark wondered how much Hosmer's infield single affected Vogelsong's confidence:

Little did Kansas City know that that run would be its final one of the game. The Royals missed a great opportunity on Saturday to take complete control of the World Series, and Yost will likely get second-guessed about his handling of the bullpen.

But he saved Herrera, Davis and Holland for later in the series, which could prove pivotal. In addition, Kansas City still owns home-field advantage, so it's way too early to begin panicking.

Game 5 is scheduled for Sunday night at 8:07 p.m. ET. According to MLB.com, James Shields and Bumgarner are the scheduled starters.

Shields is 1-1 with a 7.11 ERA in four postseason starts this year, while Bumgarner is 3-1 with a 1.40 ERA in five starts. All five of those outings were at least seven innings, so Bochy couldn't have asked for a better matchup in order to try and take back the series.