Madison Bumgarner reared back one final time in the 2014 season. His 68th and final pitch of the night bounced off the bat of Kansas City’s Salvador Pérez and into the safe hands of third baseman Pablo Sandoval. The San Francisco Giants were World Series champions. Again.
If you’re keeping score at home, the franchise that could never get over the top – not in 1962, not in 1989, not in 2002 – has now won three championships in five seasons, something that hasn’t been done by a National League team since the 1940s. That type of organizational baseball feat seemed resigned to history, until Bumgarner made some of his own.
MadBum started by allowing a single run in 16 innings, capturing two wins while demoralizing a tough Kansas City Royals team that ran up a World Series ERA of 9.92 against Giants starting pitchers not named Bumgarner.
What we didn’t know then was that Bumgarner was just warming up; that when the bullpen door opened up in the fifth inning, the greatest starting pitcher in the history of the World Series would walk out and do something that we simply have never seen before: throw five innings of scoreless relief, just two days after a 117-pitch appearance.
How do you describe it? You can’t. Because it’s not done. Not by anyone in the modern era. But it happened. Just ask the Royals, who were hopelessly searching for answers in front of their home crowd, in search of an elusive World Series title.
Bumgarner put up the stop sign. And finally, five years after the magic started in the Bay Area, his ascension to the top of the baseball world was complete.
When the Giants won in 2010 the team was about Tim Lincecum and his two Cy Young awards, their black-bearded closer Brian Wilson, and a rookie catcher named Buster Posey. Two years later it was about the ascension of Marco Scutaro, Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence and the pitching of Matt Cain.
In those two seasons, Bumgarner made his World Series appearances and threw nothing but blanks. Still, it was always about somebody else.
Then came the complete game shutout in the Wild Card game in Pittsburgh, the MVP performance in the NLCS against the St Louis Cardinals, and now his World Series performance – a baseball work of art for all-time.
The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw would gladly sacrifice a few pips on his ERA to have a sniff at what Bumgarner has done in the postseason. Who wouldn’t?
Still, even after all Bumgarner did individually during these playoffs, the Giants proved themselves to be very much a team, finding contributions up and down the roster.
When San Francisco lost their starting center fielder Angel Pagan before the playoffs they overcame. When staff ace Matt Cain struggled and landed on the shelf and they overcame. When Lincecum continued to fall apart a they overcame. When second baseman Marco Scutaro didn’t play an inning this season they overcame.
Then they snuck in the playoffs through the back door with a team that won just 88 games, and went about proving that baseball isn’t always about the numbers.
Where is the stat for a team flicking on the switch just as the playoffs arrive? Where is the stat for the confidence manager Bruce Bochy bestows on his players and for the trust his players show in each other? And where is the stat for taking advantage of nearly every opportunity available on the diamond?
Like when Brandon Belt bunted into the lefty infield shift at just the right time in Game 5? Or when Juan Perez was positioned perfectly to make a key out in retiring Nori Aoki in Game 7. And Pablo Sandoval moving from second to third on a fly ball to left field, setting up an early Game 7 run.
The Giants moved along the basepaths on virtually every passed ball, wild pitch, infield grounder and fly ball out, and turned that movement into runs, many times without the benefit of a hit.
Those aren’t skills you find on a spreadsheet; those are baseball instincts, and the Giants have them in droves. Add the dominant Madison Bumgarner and you have a one-of-a-kind formula for a franchise and a modern day dynasty.
