The last time the Giants were in the postseason was 2 years earlier in Game 4 of the 2012 World Series. Marco Scutaro had driven in Ryan Theriot in the top of the 10th inning and Romo struck out Cabrera looking and the Giants were champions for the second time in 3 years. Although largely the same teams, the Giants’ 2011 and 2013 campaigns were ugly. With 86 wins in 2011 they just missed being a Wild Card contender and in 2013 they were even worse finishing in 4th place with 76 wins. This could have been a sign that it was time to rebuild, but in 2014 they showed signs of competing again. Through June 8 they had the highest winning percentage in baseball with a record of 43-21 and were in first place. But from then until August 15th they went 21-38 falling to second. But they surged again and over their next 25 games went 18-7, the hottest team in the NL. It was starting to appear that the Giants had found some even year magic. If they could just win this game in Pittsburgh they may have a shot at going all the way again. They won it all in 2010 and 2012, now here they were in the Wild Card game in 2014 with their ace on the mound: Madison Bumgarner.
Bumgarner wasn’t the best pitcher in 2014, but he was the Giants’ number one. He won 2 of his first 3 decisions of the year and then went 5-1 in May boosting his record to 7-3. As it was starting to get cold outside MadBum seemed to be heating up. In his final 14 starts the Giants went 10-4 keeping them in the hunt for a Wild Card spot. The Pirates, on the other hand, were hot themselves going 17-9 in September. The two teams finished with the same record at 88-74 but because the Pirates won the season series 4 games to 2, Pittsburgh would host this Wild Card game.
The game began as a pitcher’s duel: horse vs. horse. Pirates’ starter Edinson Volquez was 13-7 in 2014, leading the team in wins and ERA at 3.04. But Bumgarner was a bit better with 18 wins and a 2.98 ERA and he was a road warrior. 11 of Bum’s wins came in a gray jersey and his ERA was a startling 2.22. You couldn’t have put a more confident starter out there on the mound in Pittsburgh facing a “black out”. Pirates fans had all decided they would wear black shirts appearing to “black out” the stadium. This appeared to work as exactly a year earlier they beat Johnny Cueto and the Reds 6-2 to advance to the NLDS. There’s a famous clip of Cueto dropping the ball on the mound as the fans were chanting his name.
Pirates’ fans took it seriously and this was going to be a battle for the Giants offense.
The Giants Blow It Open
Volquez silenced the Giants quickly in the top of the 1st with an 8 pitch inning. But Bumgarner matched him with an 8 pitch 1st of his own, striking out Cutch on 4 pitches to end it. The Giants started to make it interesting in the 2nd inning though. Panda started with a single and then Pence lined out softly to SS on the first pitch breaking his bat. Brandon Belt would then draw a 7 pitch walk and the Giants looked to be in business with guys on 1st and 2nd and 1 out. Two pitches later Crawford would line out to right field, failing to advance Panda to 3rd. Then Travis struck out to end it.
Volquez was out of the 3rd inning after only 10 pitches and appeared to be cruising. That is until the top of the 4th. Sandoval will lead it off and he had a great at bat in the 2nd inning when he also lead off and saw 6 pitches before singling to center field. So he’s seen a lot of Volquez’s stuff already. Panda ends up ripping a breaking ball into right field for a lead off rap. He had to go down and get it but he still put barrel on it. Another great at bat as he saw 7 more pitches there, 4 with 2 strikes.
That brings up fan favorite Hunter Pence (now a Giant again in 2020) who swung at the first pitch his last at bat. Well, he’s going to see twice that many this time and chop one right through the 5.5 hole for back to back hits to start the 4th. Huge. The black out doesn’t appear to be working. Belt, who reached on a 7 pitch walk in his first at bat will work a 6 pitch walk here and load the bases for B Craw and nobody out. Volquez has thrown 52 pitches and 13 of those to Belt (25%!).
So here’s Crawford. He had an interesting year at the plate batting .246 but hit 10 HR, 10 triples, and drove in 69 runs. He hit .310 with RISP and .444 since August 30. So he was dangerous, but absolutely nobody was expecting him to go deep. The first pitch to him is up and away, ball 1. Crawford in full take mode after Belt’s walk is taking all the way and the second pitch is a fastball at the knees, strike 1. Lots of time between pitches now. The fans start to chant “Let’s go, Bucs! Let’s go, Bucs! Let’s go, Bucs!” Volquez deals and Craw fouls off a low curveball at 80 mph for strike 2. A great pitch there. He needs a strike out. Craw backs out of the box as the sell out crowd comes to their feet, waving black towels. A sea of black. This is the loudest the crowd has been all night and it’s 1-2 to Crawford with the bases loaded. Volquez comes set, glove up high, hat a little sideways, necklace hanging out. Parts of the crowd seem to be chanting “Edi! Edi! Edi!” as the pitch is on the way. It’s another curveball, this time a little bit higher. Craw puts a good swing on this one and sends it out to deep right field. Right fielder Travis Snider is looking up at it, setting up to play it off the wall but it never hits the wall! It goes over! B Craw has just hit a slam and the Giants are up 4-0!
What an at bat from the short stop. I’ve never seen a HR shut more people up instantly than Craw’s 4th inning slam. Volquez went change up, fastball, curveball, curveball and B Craw was all over that second curve. That place was absolutely silent as Brandon rounded the bases but I, and thousands of Giants fans across the country were jumping in unison. That’s all MadBum would need.
Volquez would get the next 3 guys on 6 pitches and the inning was over, but Crawford had blown a big hole in the Pirates’ ship.
Madison Freaking Bumgarner
Bumgarner had been in the bright lights before as this was about to be his 7th postseason start. A lot of history for the 24 year old who was about to show the world how dominant he can be. He was unphased by the blacked out crowd in Pittsburgh from the beginning and he was through 3 innings on only 28 pitches. The Pirates grinded out some good at bats against him in the 4th but could only get Cutch to 2nd before Marte lined out to end the threat.
The most pitches he threw to a single batter was Neil Walker in the 5th when he squeezed 7 out of Bum but ended up striking out swinging. There was really never even a threat from Pittsburgh in this game as they couldn’t get their lead off hitters on base. Russell Martin started the 2nd inning with a single but other than that Pirates’ lead off hitters failed to reach every inning.
Also, the Pirates couldn’t really get Bum’s pitch count up because he was throwing too many strikes. The most pitches he threw in an inning was 17 in the 4th, 5th, and 8th. This allowed him to stay in and go for the complete game shut out. He began the 9th at 101 pitches and Russell Martin helped him out by flying out on the first pitch. He then gets Marte swinging at a ball in the dirt and Neil Walker popped out to Posey to end the game sending the Giants into the NLDS with some great momentum. Bum’s final line: 9 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 10 SO, 109 pitches and a Game Score of 88, his third highest GSc of the year (98,92).
A Great At Bat
The Giants’ 4 run 4th proved to be too much for the Pirates and the grand slam hit by Crawford will be forever remembered by Giants’ fans. But there was an at bat that inning the fans will forget, and that was the great one put on by Pablo Sandoval that started the inning.
It was still 0-0 when Panda lead off. Volquez starts him with a curveball that’s a bit up and in for ball 1. Panda takes the next pitch at the knees for strike one. Volquez came back with more off speed stuff that time at 85 mph. Panda backs way out of the box now and adjusts his gloves. No way Panda takes 3 pitches in a row, right? Correct. He hammers a curveball halfway into the bleachers but it’s foul by about 6 feet. Just your standard 420 foot foul ball. He’s seeing the ball well tonight, and has 1 of the Giants 2 hits so far. The 1-2 pitch is a fastball way up high at 93, an easy take for Pablo. The next pitch is another fastball that Panda fouls off, late on it. He was clearly looking off speed again. Now in battle mode he walks off and taps his bat on his cleats, thinking about the next pitch. Volquez looks in and deals. The 2-2 is another fastball at 94 that’s fouled back. Three off speed pitches to start it, now three fastballs in a row. What’ll it be here? The 7th pitch of the at bat is finally the off speed pitch Panda was waiting for. Volquez left a little breaking ball up that Sandoval went down and got, lining it into right field. Russell Martin was pounding his glove on the ground hoping Volquez would bounce it, but he didn’t and Panda was all over it. A great at bat to start an inning that will live forever in Giants’ lore. In his first two plate appearances of this game Sandoval saw 13 pitches, 29% of all of Volquez had thrown. Way to be, Panda!
Odd Stats
Travis Ishikawa was the Giants’ starting left fielder in this game which wouldn’t be weird except he was the Pirates’ Opening Day first baseman that year. He only played 15 games for them and was picked up by San Francisco later in 2014.
Brandon Crawford’s grand slam was the 4th slam in Giants postseason history (Hiller, Clark, Posey, Craw) and the first since Buster’s in Game 5 of 2012 NLDS.
Panda’s hit in his first at bat gave him an 11 game postseason hitting streak which tied him the for longest in franchise history. He would break the record in the next game against the Nats with a 4th inning single (also to start an inning the Giants would score).
This game kicked off another wild postseason for the Giants and their fans lasting basically all October. I was fortunate enough to be at every home game and am still stoked about it to this day.
Next Blog: 2014 NLDS Game 2 – February 22, 2020
Ten. Twelve. Fourteen. 
What an epic moment, Craw’s slam! Where do you find the pitchers’ game scores? Great piece, keep up the good work.
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If you look at pitcher’s game logs you can see that stat on the far right.
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