Giants' Game 6 Loss Evokes Bad Memories of 2002 World Series

Before they were a dynasty in the making, and before the Even-Year Theory was an acceptable answer to why, there was 2002. 

The San Francisco Giants were a different club then, as they have been in each of their last three World Series runs. Still, there are similarities, and they have not gone unnoticed.

The 2002 Giants did not have home-field advantage in the World Series, yet they eventually took a 3-2 series lead on the then-Anaheim Angels. Going back to Orange County for Game 6, the Giants failed to close out what would have been their first championship since moving to California, thanks to a frantic comeback that saw the Angels score six times in their final two at-bats to win by a run and force a Game 7.

The Giants did not win that seventh game.

A dozen years later, the Giants are now again facing a final and deciding World Series game. Just like in 2002, the American League club has the home-field advantage and went into Game 6 with a 3-2 deficit, and just like that season, the American League club, this time the Kansas City Royals, beat the Giants to force a do-or-die game.

Wednesday night’s Game 7 at Kauffman Stadium will either cement the Giants dynasty with three World Series championships since 2010 or crown the Royals champions for the first time in 29 years and surface ugly Bay Area memories from 12 years ago. Cyan Daligdig expressed concern about seeing "shades of 2002":

"

Shades of 2002 are starting to haunt me. Still hoping for the Giants to pull through

— Cyan Daligdig (@cydazzle) October 29, 2014"

While the Giants are the same franchise, there are a couple of distinct differences a dozen years later.

The main one being that the core of this Giants team—Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Pablo Sandoval, among others—has won before and endured seven elimination games during those runs. Wednesday will be No. 8.

The other is that the Giants were already sizing their rings in 2002 by the time the Angels started their crazy comeback. Dusty Baker’s group had a five-run lead and was six outs away from closure when Mike Scioscia’s Angels started to strike. It was a stunning loss for the Giants, and by the time the media got into the visiting clubhouse, legend has it that its members could already predict the Game 7 outcome.

KPIX-TV's Dennis O'Donnell highlighted the unfortunate moment and the clubhouse's mood when the Giants lost in Game 7:

"

2002:Giants blow lead and lose game 6 to Angels.Clubhouse mood said it all about game 7 where they had no fight.What will mood be tonight?

— Dennis O'Donnell (@KPIXSPORTS) October 29, 2014"

This year’s Game 6 loss was ugly as all Hades, but it was nowhere near the realm of heartbreaking as 2002. The Royals struck early and often, putting together a 32-minute, eight-hit, seven-run second inning that tucked in the outcome early.

Eventually it ended 10-0, Royals. By the time the last out was made, several Giants starters were on the bench and likely thinking about how different Game 7 could be. They were not shell-shocked like the 2002 Giants.

While these Giants might have been a win away from another title, they weren’t six-outs away. And again, many of these Giants have stared elimination in the face and spat.

“My answer is to tell these guys they are going against the odds,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said in his postgame press conference. “We’ve done that before. Go back to 2012 and look at this postseason. A lot of people had us getting beat in the first and second round.

“This club is resilient. It’s nice to know you’ve done it, come back against the odds, and you can do it again.”

Then again, history is on Kansas City’s side.

The last team to win a seventh World Series game on the road was the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. Home teams have won the last nine Game 7s. Also, since 1982, eight of the 10 home teams to be down 3-2 in the World Series have won it all.

Finally, the Giants are 0-4 in winner-take-all World Series games. The Royals are 2-0.

That history has something to do with home-field advantage, of course. But if the baseball playoffs are a crapshoot, Game 7 can be a flip of the coin. Wendy Thurm agrees with that assessment:

"

Going to go out on a limb and say that the results of Game 7s in prior World Series has no correlation or causation w/ tomorrow's outcome

— Wendy Thurm (@hangingsliders) October 29, 2014"

All it takes is a wonderful performance by Giants starter Tim Hudson or a big night from the dormant Posey or a clutch relief appearance by Bumgarner to stall those trends. Any number of things in the Giants’ favor can be a spark.

The point being, those previous Game 7s have absolutely zero bearing on the outcome of this one, and the Giants players who realized their unfortunate fate in 2002 are long gone from this roster. This is a different team, a different brand of baseball and, most critical, a different pitching matchup.

In 2002, the Giants started Livan Hernandez, who led the National League with 16 losses in the regular season and had a 4.38 ERA and 1.407 WHIP. He was quite the below-average pitcher that season, and his postseason was bad—14 earned runs in 20.1 innings (6.20 ERA).

MARK J. TERRILL/Associated Press

The Angels threw rookie John Lackey in Game 7, and after a solid regular season, he broke out in the postseason, allowing six runs in 22.1 innings (2.42 ERA).

In the final game, Hernandez allowed four runs in two innings. Lackey threw five and allowed one. The Angels won that game, 4-1.

There is no clear pitching advantage in 2014, no clear-cut difference-maker. The Giants have Hudson, who has been OK this postseason. The Royals will throw in Jeremy Guthrie, who has been good but short on innings, although that isn’t such a huge issue since the Royals have a well-rested bullpen with Brandon Finnegan, Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland ready for deployment.

Kansas City has the slight edge Wednesday but only slight. To definitively call a seventh game in the Royals’ favor would be to do so blindly.

While home-field advantage, history and the bad memories of 2002 work against the Giants, little else will before first pitch.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News, and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.