The San Francisco Giants have won the World Series, which makes them baseball’s champions.
Many people are citing a remarkable performance by the Giants’ pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, as one of the reasons why the Giants won.
The World Series is a series of seven games. The first team to win four games, wins the World Series.
This year, it came down to the wire. Both teams had won three games; the Giants won the final game, 3 to 2. “It was only the second World Series since 2002 to go to seven games,” according to Wikipedia.
The New York Times newspaper had this to say about Bumgarner’s performance in the seventh game:
Bumgarner, a bearded left-hander from Hickory, North Carolina, squeezed the life from the plucky Kansas City Royals with fastballs, cutters and curveballs slung sideways from an arm that had only two days’ rest.
Pitching is very hard on a person’s arm. “Starting pitchers” usually don’t pitch for five days after they have pitched in a game.
But in this case, Bumgarner only had two days in which he didn’t pitch. After that, he managed to not only pitch five innings in game seven but he didn’t give up any runs. That means the other team didn’t score any runs while Bumgarner was pitching.
Sports Illustrated magazine calls Bumgarner’s performance in game seven “flawless.” They said his pitching in the 2014 World Series puts him in the top five of “the greatest World Series pitching performances of all time.”
The Giants have won three of the last five World Series championships, in 2014, 2012 and 2010.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
This World Series included an interested match between two teams. On the one hand, The San Francisco Giants were favoured to win. Not only had they won two World Series during the last few years, they have a fantastic pitcher. On the other hand, people didn’t even think the Kansas City Royals would be a good team and they definitely didn’t think they would go to the World Series.
Which team do you think is more impressive? The SF Giants because they won another World Series title or the Kansas City Royals who beat all odds and came close to winning the World Series?
Reading Prompt: Demonstrating Understanding
An idiom is a phrase that doesn’t make sense if you just read the words; the phrase has a separate meaning.
For example, the idiom “down to the wire” is used in the article in the following way: “This year, it came down to the wire. Both teams had won three games; the Giants won the final game, 3 to 2.” There wasn’t a wire in the game. This phrase means that it was a tense, close series that was determined during the final game when the Giants won.
What is an idiom that you know? What would someone think it would mean if they just read the words in the phrase? What does it actually mean?
Junior
Identify some elements of style, including voice, word choice, and different types of sentences, and explain how they help readers understand texts (OME, Reading: 2.4).
Language Feature: Homonyms
Homonyms are words that either sound the same or are spelled the same, but they have different meanings. The words pitcher and picture are homonyms. A pitcher is a person who throws a baseball to a batter, or it is a container to hold liquid. A picture is an image.
Can you think of 5 homonyms?
