The San Francisco Giants found themselves in a familiar position Wednesday evening: a season ending in late October, with a celebration on the mound, champagne showers in the locker room, and a feeling of euphoria that cannot be equaled. When the final pitch was fouled off high in the air up the third base line and Pablo Sandoval settled under it to make the catch, the Giants secured their third World Series Championship in five seasons.
Madison Bumgarner was the star for the Giants yet again, adding to his legendary World Series resume. Bumgarner, who started and pitched a complete game shutout Sunday evening came in as relief to throw five innings in Game Seven. With just two days of rest, Bumgarner allowed no runs and only two hits in those five innings, once again stunning baseball fans all over the globe.
The Giants opened the scoring in the top of the second inning. Sandoval, the lead-off hitter, was hit by a pitch, followed by consecutive singles by Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt. With the bases loaded, Michael Morse hit a sacrifice fly to right field, plating Sandoval and allowing Pence to tag up and take third. With runners on first and third Brandon Crawford delivered another sac fly, scoring Pence and putting the Giants up 2-0.
The Kansas City Royals answered right back in the bottom of the 2nd off of starting pitcher Tim Hudson. Royals DH Billy Butler led off the inning with a ground ball single to center field. Next up was Alex Gordan, who ripped an RBI double to right field, allowing Butler to score. After Salvador Perez was hit by a pitch and Mike Moustakas flew out to left allowing Gordan to take third, Omar Infante delivered a sacrifice fly to center field, plating Gordan, and tying the game at 2-2.
Hudson was pulled after completing just 1.2 innings and was replaced by Jeremy Afeldt who made the next batter ground into a fielder’s choice, keeping the game tied going into the third.
The game stayed tied until the top of the fourth. Royals starter, Jeremy Guthrie, allowed consecutive singles to Sandoval and Pence. Sandoval took third on a fly out by Belt, and Guthrie was relieved by Kelvin Herrera. Morse recorded his second RBI of the night with a single to right. Sandoval scored, making the game 3-2.
Afledt set the Royals down in order in the bottom of the fourth, and Herrera did the same to the Giants in the top of the fifth.
Then came Bumgarner, the World Series MVP, making his first relief appearance of the playoffs.
After allowing a single to lead off hitter Omar Infante, Bumgarner absolutely dominated, sitting down 14 consecutive Royals in order.
The Giants were also unable to create any offense off the Royals’ shutdown bullpen. Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland allowed no earned runs and only four hits over 5.2 innings.
Then, with two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the ninth, the Giants, just one out away from clinching the World Series, almost let the game slip away.
Alex Gordan hit a line drive towards centerfielder Gregor Blanco. Off the bat, it appeared that Blanco had a play on it, but the ball hit the ground just feet in front of Blanco, who was in no position to field it on the hop. The ball skipped past Blanco, and rolled all the way to the wall. Luckily for the Giants, left fielder Juan Perez was backing up Blanco on the play, but he bobbled the ball, allowing Gordan extra time to advance all the way to third base. Unfortunately for the Royals, Bumgarner was not rattled by the tying run being just 90 feet away, and he got Royals catcher Salvador Perez to foul out to Sandoval.
The Royals were able to hang around long enough in Game Seven to give the Giants a scare, yet Bumgarner was able to answer the call, further cementing himself as one of the best World Series pitchers in the history of the game.
Bumgarner finished the World Series with an ERA of 0.41, 20 innings pitched, two wins and a crucial Game Seven save.
What the Giants have done in the last five seasons, winning three World Series championships, is arguably the best five-year stretch for any team in MLB history. Bumgarner is the single biggest contributor to that success and will for sure go down in history as one of the best postseason performances of all time from a starting pitcher.
Billy Reardon is a third-year student majoring in communications with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at WR783095@wcupa.edu