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  March 27, 2018 9:08 PM PDT

  KANSAS CITY, Mo. Custom Roma Jerseys . - Hunter Pence most definitely found the right place.A day after saying he hadnt been sure until this year that the Royals played in Missouri rather than Kansas, Pence jolted Kauffman Stadium with a two-run, first-inning homer that quieted the crowd and sparked the San Francisco Giants to a 7-1 win in Tuesday nights World Series opener.It was really loud in my head, Pence said. Sometimes, my mind, when Im playing the game or our team is doing something good, its like an emptiness. I dont know whats going on around me.Pence had been 0 for 11 against James Shields before the homer. The right fielder who wears his socks extraordinarily high doubled and scored for a 4-0 lead in the fourth and also walked twice as the Giants won their seventh straight Series game dating to 2010.Youve got to work down, almost bouncing pitches at times, Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. But his strike zone is so big, its difficult.Pence started a meme on Aug. 1 when he tweeted a photo of himself in a New York coffee shop with the message, These pretzels are making me thirsty, a reference to a 1991 episode of the television sitcom Seinfeld.Fans started showing up at ballparks referencing Pences quirks with nonsensical signs.One of my favourites in Kansas City was, Hunter Pence Thinks Hes in Kansas, Pence explained on the eve of the opener. Once I read the sign, I said, I guess Im not in Kansas, so I have to be in Missouri. So I didnt know.The 31-year-old right fielder, acquired by the Giants from Philadelphia at the 2012 trade deadline, entertained at Mondays media day, looking a bit like a mid-1980s Bruce Springsteen with a bandanna around his hair. Hes been known to wear a LINCECOM KNOWS sign in honour of teammate Tim Lincecum, who dresses a couple of spots away in San Franciscos home clubhouse.A three-time All-Star, Pence is among the key emotional components in a clubhouse that could become the first NL team to win three championships in a five-year span since the 1942-46 St. Louis Cardinals. His leaping catch — tongue wagging, too — against the right-field wall of Jayson Werths sixth-inning drive helped the Giants in their clinching Game 4 win over Washington in the NL Division Series.He gathers his teammates in the clubhouse after wins for profanity-filled speeches or to offer congratulations for certain accomplishments, team and individual. Sometimes, manager Bruce Bochy doesnt need to say a word in team meetings, acknowledging Pence had the subject covered quite well.His energy, his enthusiasm, his passion for the game — hes tireless, Bochy said. Not a lot of guys can get themselves up every day the way he does. Hes a tireless worker, and Ive said this: Hes my lowest maintenance player Ive ever had. I just put his name in the lineup and leave him alone.Pence calls playing in San Francisco at always sold-out AT&T Park a magical atmosphere.Its just a group that I felt like I fit in, he said. There are a lot of accepting people of different personalities.Bumgarner said Pence holds most of the team meetings, not Bochy. He praised him profusely, saying its been an honour and a blessing to have him as a teammate.Sitting next to him, Pence leaned over to give a bromance hug and patted the pitcher on the head.I paid him to say that, he said before quickly adding: No, Im just kidding.That intense focus and always-on personality is part of Pence.Its kind of a blessing and a curse, he said. At home, I get people really angry with me, but on the field it works out good. Thomas Vermaelen Jersey .J. -- Travis Zajac of the New Jersey Devils took a lot of grief considering his scored the first of his career-best three goals just 12 seconds into a crucial game against the Florida Panthers. Aleksandar Kolarov Jersey . -- Jesse Lussier scored 8:24 into overtime as the Halifax Mooseheads erased a four-goal deficit to beat the host Val-dOr Foreurs 6-5 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoff action.BETHESDA, Md. -- Justin Rose has won enough times on the strongest golf courses to appreciate how one mistake can make a difference. He got away with one Sunday at Congressional to win the Quicken Loans National. Shawn Stefani did not. With the poise and the putting touch of a U.S. Open champion, Rose atoned for a 4-iron he hit into the water on the 18th hole to make a 15-foot bogey putt that got him into a playoff and gave him new life. On the 18th hole in the playoff, Stefani hit the same type of shot that rolled into the same pond left of the green. There are no second chances in a sudden-death playoff. Rose won with a par on the first extra hole for his first victory since the U.S. Open last summer at Merion. This one required about as much work, with Congressional far more difficult and unrelenting than when it hosted a soggy U.S. Open three years ago. "Congressional got its reputation back after the U.S. Open," Rose said. "I really enjoy this type of golf and this type of test. I think it tested all of us. Im delighted." The Englishman was far from delighted after thinking he had thrown this one away. Tied for the lead as he played the 18th, Rose tried to squeeze a 4-iron through a tiny gap in the trees from 209 yards away, playing toward the right side of the green for a chance at par. Instead, he turned it over and realized when he jogged toward the fairway that it was headed for the water. His caddie, Mark Fulcher, told Rose that Stefani had just made bogey behind them on the 17th. "Everything else was forgotten at that point," Rose said. "I wiped the slate clean and just focused on my putt on 18. An amazing feeling in any sort of championship when you make a putt like that. That means something. Thats special. "And then the playoff, it was just up to me to not do what I did the first time around." He left that to Stefani, who had drilled his tee shot in regulation and narrowly missed a 20-foot birdie putt for his first PGA Tour victory. In the playoff, Stefani pulled his tee shot in the trees and got relief from grandstands blocking his view of the green. He chose a 6-iron to punch it around the trees. "The grass closed the club down," Stefani said, "and it went left into the water. I was trying to play it down the right side and have a chance at a putt, two putts for a par. Thats the way it goes. It was great to have a chance to win." Both closed with a 1-under 70 and finished at 4-under 280 on a course that looked like a U.S. Open, and played like onee the way so many contenders -- seven players had at least a share of the lead at one point -- tumbled down the leaderboard. Abdullahi Nura Jersey. Only six players broke par in the final round. And it was only the second time this year that the winning score was higher than the 36-hole lead (6 under). That also happened at Torrey Pines, which like Congressional, previously hosted a U.S. Open. No one crashed harder than Patrick Reed, who had a two-shot lead to start the final round, still had a two-shot lead at the turn and didnt even finish in the top 10. He made back-to-back double bogeys, shot 41 on the back and closed with a 77 to tie for 11th. "This definitely burns and definitely gets me more fired up for more events coming up," Reed said. Even though he got a reprieve with the clutch bogey putt, Rose looked like a U.S. Open champion the way he put himself into position. He hit 5-iron to 5 feet for one of only four birdies on the 11th hole Sunday. Staring at potential bogey from deep rough on the 14th, he boldly hit 3-wood up the hill and between the deep bunkers to the middle of the green. It was a par, but Rose called the 3-wood his "shot of the day." And before his blunder on the 18th, he holed an 8-foot sliding par putt on the 17th. "I felt like all aspects of my game were tested this week, and its really nice to win in that fashion," Rose said. Stefani, whose only major experience was at Merion last year, plodded along like a U.S. Open veteran with one par after another. He joined Rose in the lead with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 16th. So many others fell back. Brendon Todd was tied for the lead until a double bogey in the water on the 10th. Marc Leishman three-putted for bogey on No. 7 and made bogey on the easiest par 4 at Congressional. Brendan Steele made a late rally, only to take on too much from the rough on the 18th and find the water for double bogey. This was the first British Open qualifier on the PGA Tour -- the leading four players not already exempt from the top 12 at Congressional get into Royal Liverpool next month. Stefani earned one spot as the runner-up. Charley Hoffman (69) and Ben Martin (71) each birdied two of the last three holes to tie for third. Steele got the last spot with a 71 that put him in a three-way tie for third with Andres Romero and Todd, who already is exempt. Steele earned the spot over Romero because he has a higher world ranking. Romero closed with a 68, the low score in a final round when the scoring average was 73.7.        ' ' '