SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Giants outfielder Juan Perez was preparing himself in a training room near the team's dugout early in Game 5 Sunday when he overheard a major league official outside the door say that St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras had been killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic.

What? Oscar had been killed? Perez could not believe it. This cannot be true, he thought. Please, do not let this be true, he pleaded. Taveras was just 22 years old. Perez and Taveras, good friends and former teammates in the winter leagues, had played against each other just 10 days earlier in the National League Championship Series.

Juan Perez's two-run double in the bottom of the eighth gave the Giants an insurmountable 4-0 lead in Game 5. Rob Carr/Getty Images

While the World Series game continued, Perez raced up to the stairs to the clubhouse and grabbed his smart phone to see if the story was true. Sadly, there were more than 20 text messages from friends and relatives confirming the death of Taveras, as well as his girlfriend. Tears rolled down his cheeks as Perez read the messages. He was sitting and staring at a horribly graphic photo of the car after the accident as Giants reliever Santiago Casilla entered the Giants clubhouse.

"No, put that away," Casilla told Perez. "You can't see that."

Perez put the phone away and tried to concentrate on the game, which the Giants were leading 1-0. But how could he concentrate on a baseball game when his friend had just been killed? The Giants outfielder thought about how he and Taveras had met in 2009 when Perez was playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic. He thought about Taveras' major league debut. He thought about how Taveres had homered against the Giants in the NLCS and how he had made the final out of that series.

He even thought that if he and the Giants had not beaten the Cardinals in the NLCS, his friend would still be alive.

"It's tough. He's a really close friend of mine," Perez said. "I know his family. I know his mother, his dad, his brother. We played winter ball together. It's a huge loss, not only for his family but for his teammates and the people who care about him.

"You never know what can happen in life. It's crazy. I can't explain it."

As the game progressed and the Giants extended their lead to 2-0, infielder Matt Duffy saw Perez stretching on the floor by the indoor batting cage. He could see how hard his teammate was taking the news.