KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Salvador Perez and the pesky Kansas City Royals fought back from a Game 1 flop to beat the San Francisco Giants’ brilliant bullpen and even the World Series.

Perez broke Game 2 open with a two-run double in a five-run sixth inning, and the Royals’ own cast of clutch relievers kept the Giants in check for a 7-2 victory Wednesday night that spiced things up as the Series shifts to San Francisco for the next three games.

Jeremy Guthrie will be on the mound Friday night for the Royals, who had won eight straight playoff games before a 7-1 loss in the opener. Tim Hudson will start for San Francisco.

The Royals had already pulled ahead 3-2 on Billy Butler’s RBI single in the sixth when Perez doubled into the left-field gap. Omar Infante followed with a two-run shot off Hunter Strickland, the fifth home run the feisty Giants reliever had allowed to 23 postseason batters.

Strickland appeared to mutter to himself as he stalked back to the mound, and Perez overheard him. The two exchanged words and players from both dugouts spilled onto the field. More streamed in from the outfield bullpens before order was finally restored.

Suddenly, a series that began with a sleepy blowout had some life.

Young flamethrower Yordano Ventura, with his 100 mph fastball singeing the brims of the Giants’ batting helmets, allowed just two runs while pitching into the sixth inning. The 23-year-old hardly looked like the first rookie to make a World Series start in Royals history, calmly working through a lineup that ravaged staff ace James Shields just 24 hours earlier.

The dynamic trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland did the rest.

Herrera got the final two outs of the sixth to escape a jam, two of his first three pitches clocking 101 mph on the radar gun. He also survived a shaky seventh that included a pair of walks before Davis locked down the eighth, striking out two in a perfect inning.

Greg Holland, who saved each game in the Royals’ sweep of Baltimore in the AL Championship Series, allowed a two-out single to Brandon Crawford before fanning Gregor Blanco to end the game.

The Giants’ only runs came on a homer by Blanco and a double by Brandon Belt, their streak of seven straight World Series wins ending on a crisp, breezy night.

Early on, though, it looked as if they could be heading back to the Bay Area with a big lead.

The fleet-footed Blanco silenced a rollicking sea of blue, becoming the 10th player to open a World Series game with a home run. He deposited Ventura’s 98 mph fastball in the bullpen in right field, just his 17th home run in more than 2,300 at-bats.

The crowd, energized from the moment that Hall of Famer George Brett delivered the ceremonial first pitch, was left waiting for something good to happen for the second straight night.

This time, the scrappy Royals gave it to them.

ALCS MVP Lorenzo Cain stretched a liner to left field into a two-out double later in the first, and Eric Hosmer walked on four pitches. Butler, Peavy’s long-time nemesis, then bounced a single past the outstretched glove of Crawford at shortstop to knot the game 1-all.

The Royals kept the pressure on in second. Infante doubled over the head of Travis Ishikawa in left field, and Escobar sliced a two-out double down the right-field line to give Kansas City a 2-1 lead, its first in the World Series since Game 7 in 1985.

The Giants, so accustomed to October baseball, still didn’t look rattled — even as Ventura kept pounding the strike zone with a steady dose of 100 mph fastballs.

Eventually, Pablo Sandoval sent a high fly to the warning track leading off the fourth, and a stiff wind blowing out to left turned Cain around. The ball caromed away for a double, and Belt drove in Sandoval with a double that bounced off Nori Aoki’s glove in right field.

The game was still knotted at 2 when the Royals got their first two batters aboard in the sixth. Giants manager Bruce Bochy finally pulled the fiery Peavy, hoping to play for matchups with his bullpen. Butler promptly hit a go-ahead single off Jean Machi, and Strickland came in two batters later to face Perez, whose homer in Game 1 represented the Royals’ only run.

From there, well, the Royals showed they still had plenty of fight left.

PANDA POWER

Sandoval has reached base safely in 25 consecutive playoff games. The only players to have done that more are Miguel Cabrera (31) and Chase Utley (27).

LINCECUM LEAVES

Two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum worked 1 2-3 innings of relief before he appeared to hurt himself on a pitch with two outs in the eighth. Santiago Casilla replaced him.

UP NEXT

Giants: Hudson has appeared in 12 postseason games and started 11 of them, first with Oakland and then Atlanta. But he’s never been on the mound in the World Series. He shut down Washington in the NLDS, giving up one run in 7 1-3 innings, but struggled against St. Louis in the NLCS.

Royals: Guthrie, an 11-year veteran, did not pitch in the Royals’ sweep of the Angels in the ALDS. He made his first career postseason start in the ALCS against the Orioles, allowing one run on three hits over five innings in his first outing since Sept. 26.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants put a sudden stop to the Kansas City Royals’ perfect postseason roll.

Bumgarner pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning, Hunter Pence homered early and the Giants showed off their October poise, shutting down the Royals 7-1 Tuesday night in the World Series opener.

From the get-go, the Giants simply did everything right to win their seventh straight World Series game. There’s a reason Bumgarner and these guys in black and orange are trying for their third title in five years.

The Royals, meanwhile, looked nothing like the fresh team that had become baseball’s darlings by starting the playoffs with eight wins in a row — pitching, hitting and fielding all deserted them.

The fates seemed to change from the very first batter, in fact. Gregor Blanco led off with a soft line drive to center field and AL Championship Series MVP Lorenzo Cain charged, then backed off as the ball fell for a single. It would’ve taken a near miracle to catch it, but that’s the kind of play the Royals had been making on a routine basis.

Moments later, Pence’s homer highlighted a three-run burst in the first inning against James Shields. Nicknamed “Big Game James,” he once again failed to live up to that billing and left in the fourth when the Giants made it 5-0.

By then, Royals fans who had waited since 1985 for the Series to come to town had gone silent. Or, worse, they were booing while small “Let’s go, Giants!” chants echoed through Kauffman Stadium.

Just like that, what many figured would be a tight matchup had turned into a mismatch. And it was a good omen for the Giants — the Game 1 winner has won 15 of the last 17 World Series.

The Royals will try to get even in Game 2 on Wednesday night when rookie Yordano Ventura starts against veteran Jake Peavy.

Bumgarner added to his sparkling World Series resume, improving to 3-0 and extending his scoreless streak to 21 innings before Salvador Perez homered in the seventh.

The 25-year-old called MadBum by his teammates was in trouble only once. Down 3-0, the Royals loaded the bases with a two-out walk and cleanup man Eric Hosmer stepped to the plate, but grounded out on the first pitch.

Bumgarner went on to stretch his road postseason scoreless streak to a record 32 2-3 innings as the Giants cruised. He pitched three-hit ball for seven innings, struck out five and walked one.

Michael Morse, getting to play as the designated hitter in the AL park, had an RBI single that finished Shields, and reliever Danny Duffy walked Blanco with the bases loaded.

Rookie Joe Panik hit an RBI triple that bounced past usually reliable right fielder Nori Aoki in the seventh and scored on a single by October force Pablo Sandoval. The MVP of the 2012 World Series triumph, Sandoval also had an RBI double in the first that extended his postseason streak of reaching base to 24 straight games.

Pence also doubled and walked.

Before the game, the mood at the ballpark was positively giddy. Ushers greeted fans with “Welcome to the World Series!” and some hot-dog vendors high-fived each other behind the counter.

Yet the Giants wrecked that fun, and won for the 16th time in their last 18 postseason games.

The Royals had won 11 straight in the postseason dating to their 1985 championship run, one short of the record held by a pair of New York Yankees clubs.

But it was clear from the start that this would not be their night, and not even the little things went well.

Early in the game, Kansas City third base coach Mike Jirschele retrieved a foul ball and tried to flip it into the stands. Instead, his toss fell well short of reaching the seats.

UP NEXT

Giants: Peavy lost 12 straight decisions this season, spanning his July trade from Boston to the Giants. … The 33-year-old is 1-3 with a 7.03 ERA in seven postseason starts, including an outing for the Red Sox in last year’s World Series. He beat Washington in the NL Division Series and was pulled after four innings vs. St. Louis in the NL Championship Series. … Royals DH Billy Butler is 14 for 33 (.424) with three HRs off Peavy.

Royals: The 23-year-old Ventura will become the first rookie to start a World Series game at any position for the Royals. No Giants hitter has ever faced the right-hander with a 100 mph heater. … Ventura pitched well in a start vs. the Angels in the ALDS and struggled vs. Baltimore in an ALCS start.

NO REPLAY NEEDED

The first Series game in the expanded replay era didn’t require a single video review. But all six umpires quickly huddled to discuss a foul ball that glanced off Perez’s bat on a bounce, and got it right.

— Associated Press —