Today, March 26, 2020, was supposed to be a day of new beginnings. A day of celebration. It was supposed to be Opening Day. It’s the only day when all teams have the same record, and same opportunity. But it means more than just baseball. Opening Day brings families and friends together. It’s a day that is marked on the calendar as soon as the schedule comes out and is looked forward to immediately after the final pitch of the World Series.

This year was no different until an ugly virus, COVID-19, reared it’s ugly head. As it spread through the country, all major sporting events, and eventually, all events were cancelled in an effort to slow the virus down. This included Major League Baseball which was more than halfway through spring training at the time it was shut down. But it was the right thing to do. You can’t have 15,000 people sneezing and coughing on each other for 3 hours when you’re trying to contain a deadly virus.

So baseball is shut down and at the time of writing this (March 23) there is no Opening Day on the calendar. There is no day to look forward to. Just hope. Hope that the American people can act accordingly and stifle this virus so we can get back to complaining about the strike zone. I miss yelling at the TV. I miss the Giants. Baseball hasn’t even been shut down for a month but that just goes to show you how important it is to people. When we are promised it and it gets taken away, we feel it’s absence deeply. That being said, let’s try and fill the void by talking about the last time the Giants were good.

2016 NLDS Game 3

For the 4th time in 6 years the Giants were in the postseason and I was really getting used to this “even year” thing (which is this year, btw). MadBum did MadBum things in a complete game shutout of the Mets in the Wild Card Game and the Giants found themselves matched up against the Cubs in the Division Series. Just like in 2014 after a Bumgarner complete game shutout, the Giants had to play Game 1 on the road. Despite a brilliant performance by Johnny Cueto that night, the Giants lost Game 1 1-0 on a Javy Baez solo HR in the bottom of the 8th. Game 2 was over almost as quickly as it started as Jeff Samardzija gave up 4 runs in 2 innings, eventually losing 5-2. Now we’re in San Francisco for Game 3.

The Giants would be facing Jake Arrieta. Arrieta really broke out the year before winning the Cy Young by going 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA, leading the league in complete games (4) and shutouts (3). In 2016 he went 18-8 and his ERA was a bit higher at 3.10. But he was still scary and he could also hit. Jake hit 2 homers in each of 2015 and 2016 so Bumgarner wasn’t going to be able to just groove him fastballs (before you go looking it up, Bumgarner hit 3 homers in 2016). The Giants backs were up against the wall and he was dominant. However, Arrieta hadn’t pitched in 12 days so does that mean he’s rusty, or rested?

The Cubs Take The Lead

Bumgarner got through the top of the 1st rather painlessly and after Arrieta struck out 3 Giants in the bottom half, he was back on the mound. Leading it off was Ben Zobrist who would ground out to Crawford after a 6 pitch at bat. Then things started to fall apart. Next up is Addison Russell who will get hit by a Bumgarner fastball on his forearm, but not before coaxing 8 more pitches out of Madison. Bumgarner got out of the 1st inning on only 14 pitches, now here in the 2nd he’s thrown 14 and has 1 out and a guy on first as Javy Baez digs in.

Baez will force the count full and on the 9th pitch of the at bat lines a ball down the 3rd baseline. Conor Gillaspie dives to his right and knocks it down but there is no play and the Cubs are in business with 2 on and 1 out. Gillaspie made a fantastic stop to prevent a double and did the right thing to just eat it. The double play is still in order for Miguel Montero.

Montero will do Bum a favor and lineout to Pence in right field on the first pitch. He hit it hard but it was right at him for the second out. Huge. Now we just have to navigate Arrieta and we’re out of the inning.

Bum’s first pitch misses for a ball. Great. This game is beginning to feel like Bum is not right. He’s already at 39 pitches. In his last start he was at 39 pitches through 3.2 innings. Cubs are really making him work. Arrieta swings through the next fastball at 92 mph and it’s 1-1. It’s at this point that FS1 puts a graphic on the screen that shows that the Cubs pitchers have 3 RBI in this series, while Giants HITTERS have 2. A disgusting fact at a poor time for Giants fans.

The 1-1 is another fastball and Jake swings right through it for strike 2. Just one more strike and we’re out of this. Bum, working fast, gets the sign and comes set. Deals. It’s another high fastball and this time Arrieta is all over it. He smokes a high line drive to straightaway left field and it lands in the 2nd row for a 3 run homer, right in the glove of a Cubs fan. The Cubs’ dugout loses their minds and it’s a 3-0 ballgame. How?

This was now the inning from hell. Our best guy just gave up a huge home run to the opposing pitcher and we were one loss away from going home. That big fly sucked all the air out of Giants fans lungs and the inning was still not over. What made it worse was that there was so many Cubs fans there. It felt like half the yard was cheering during Arrieta’s home run trot. It was awful with all of them in our house like that. Then to make it worse, Dexter Fowler would single on the very next pitch and Bumgarner would walk Kris Bryant on 4 straight balls!

Bum finally got it back together while facing the lefty Anthony Rizzo and getting two quick strikes. Rizzo would have singled on the 0-2 pitch to drive in another run but Crawford was playing directly up the middle and caught the soft liner off Rizzo’s bat for the final out of a 37 pitch inning. I can’t imagine that this was not the worst inning of Bum’s postseason career.

The Giants Scratch Back

Moving on to the bottom of the 3rd it’s still 3-0 Cubs and Cubs fans are starting to think the’ll see their team clinch a postseason series tonight. Arrieta’s been dealing and Madison Bumgarner looks more like Mason Saunders.

Anyway, Bum leads this inning off with a first pitch groundout bringing Denard Span to the plate. This was Span’s first year with the Giants, playing in over 140 games. Actually, Angel Pagan was supposed to start this game but was a late scratch with a sore back so Span was in there, which was a really good thing because he was about to do Span stuff.

Span gets in the hole quickly and it’s 0-2. Arrieta struck out 4 Giants the first time through the order. On the 0-2 pitch, Span lines a sinker that didn’t sink very much over Rizzo’s head into the right field corner! Span jogs into 2nd base easily for the 1 out double. Rizzo leaped as high as he could and was about 1 inch short of snagging it, which was incredibly important it would turn out.

This brings up 2016 Giants home run leader Brandon Belt. He’s 1-9 in this series and is due for a knock. Unlike the Span at bat, Belt gets to a quick 2-0 count, but then pops out to Bryant at 3rd for out number 2. So sits down the Giants home run leader.

Stepping into the box now is Buster Posey. He’s 1-1 already, singling in the first. Arrieta’s first pitch is a ball, inside. Buster fouls off the 1-0 and we’re even at 1-1. Jake paying zero attention to Span on 2nd. On the 3rd pitch to Buster he tries to beat him with a fastball but Posey’s right on it and lines a grounder right back up the middle! Span scores without a throw and the Giants are on the board! RBIs always feel a little bit more special when they’re from Buster.

Span The Spark Plug

The bottom of the 5th starts with Eduardo Nunez batting for Bumgarner. Due to hamstring injuries, Nunez could not start any of these games. He pinch hit in Chicago once and was now in there to start the 5th.

He will groundout quickly to bring up Span. He’s 1-2 with that double and looking for more. Jake misses with a big curveball on the first pitch, then misses up with a slider for a quick 2-0 count. Span fouls the next one off. Jake never throwing fastballs in 2-0 counts. But he does on 2-1 counts as Span hammers the 4th pitch to deepest center field! It one hops into triples alley and Span is on the move! Zobrist finally gets to it but by that time Denard is around 2nd, and slides into 3rd with no play. A clutch 1 out triple in an elimination game.

Now Brandon Belt can be a hero but after 2 pitches it’s 0-2 and Arrieta is a pitch away from another strike out. The 0-2 is way high and so is the 1-2. Both easy takes for Belt and now we’re even. Span takes a big lead off 3rd base, knowing he has to score on a ground ball. Jake gets the sign, takes a look at Span, and deals. It’s a sinker and Belt goes down to get it and catches barrel, sending it to deep right field on a line. Zobrist backs up and catches it just before the track and Span tags and scores easily and now the Cubs lead is down to 1! What a great at bat by Belt who was down early in the count. That’s a great at bat nominee.

Buster will get his 3rd hit of the game 2 pitches later as he rips a liner right back over Jake’s face into center field. Two pitches Pence lines out to right to end the inning.

The Legend Of Conor Gillaspie

The bottom of the 8th started with a Brandon Belt single off Travis Wood. Then Joe Maddon brought in Hector Rondon to face Buster and he walks him on 6 pitches. With 2 on and 0 outs, Maddon then brings in the terrifying Aroldis Chapman to hold the lead. And why not? Chapman is the most feared lefty in the league. This guy throws 100 mph in his sleep.

Pence is the first one to face him and goes down swinging on a 102 mph fastball up out of the zone for the first out bringing Gillaspie to the plate. He’s 0-3 tonight and finds himself in a huge spot. Since he put his name on the map with his Wild Card winning 3 run homer, he’s gone 1-8. Not exactly sizzling, but no one will remember that. Being on deck during the Pence at bat has given hime some chances to time a fastball.

Big moment. Bottom of the 8th, tying run on 2nd, Chapman on the mound. Conor digs in the box, Chapman comes set. The first pitch is at 101 mph and Conor fouls it straight back. On it. Chapman gets a new ball and rubs it up. A lot of time between pitches here.

The old saying is “one to measure, one to rake”. Gillaspie just measured the first one. Time to rake. Chapman looks into Montero for the sign, like it could be anything other than a 100+ mph fastball. He comes set, takes a look at Belt on 2nd, and deals with a big high leg kick. Right on cue Matt Vasgersian doing the broadcast says, “…the biggest moment of the game right here” as Chapman throws. It’s a 102 mph fastball up in the zone and Conor obliterates it to deepest center field.

Albert Almora appears to have a beat on it. I remember watching as a fan thinking he was going to make the catch of the year and held my breath. Almora dives but it’s out of his reach as it bounces up against the fence to the left of the 421 marker! He gets up and tracks down the ball as Giants fans bang on the top of the center field wall three feet above him. Belt scores easily and now Flannery’s waving Posey! Baez’s relay is late and Buster slides in safely and the Giants have taken the lead!

The crowd is going insane! An unbelievable moment to put the Giants in front 4-3! All Chapman can do is walk around with that “are you kidding me” smirk on his face. You know the one.

Next up is Crawford who will battle Chapman for 7 pitches. He fell behind 0-2 on two foul balls before taking a slider low. On the penultimate pitch, Crawford laces a 102 mph fastball past a drawn in Russell at short into center field for a base hit and it’s 5-3 Giants! What great at bats by Conor and Craw! No one’s more excited than Derek Law in the dugout, waving his towel like a true fan while Joe Maddon casually takes notes.

To keep the momentum going, Chapman then walks Joe Panik on 6 pitches and is taken out of the game to the roar of Giants fans.

Justin Grimm comes in to face Blanco and on the 1-0 pitch, it’s high for ball 2 and Montero fires a ball down to 3rd base attempting to pick off Craw but the ball hits him right on his elbow and rolls out to short stop. Panik moves up to 2nd on the play but Crawford is hurt. After a couple minutes with the trainer, we’re good to go.

Blanco will then ground out to 1st, not allowing Crawford to score and Gorkys Hernandez will ground out to end the inning. But not before Conor Gillaspie delivers a legendary hit that will live in Giants history forever.

Freaking Kris Bryant

Sergio Romo comes into the game to close it out and send us to Game 4 but he can’t put Dexter Fowler away and ends up walking him on 8 pitches. So frustrating. Now the Cubs best hitter is up and could tie the game with 1 swing.

This was scary as Bryant was already 2-3 with a walk and a double tonight. Romo’s first pitch to him is a swing and a miss on a low slider and it’s 0-1. Sergio paces around the grass as he does before climbing back up on the hill. Buster sets up outside as Romo deals the 0-1. It’s another slider but this one starts inside and comes right back over the heart of the plate. Bryant doesn’t miss it as he hits this one a mile high down the left field line. Blanco gets to the track, the wall, and leaps but the ball bounces off the very top of the orange car for a game tying 2 run homer. Ugh!

Ugh. All that work to take a 2 run lead erased. This was such a punch in the gut. Cubs fans were loving it and there were too many of them. Get me away from these Cubs fans.

After that devastating blow, Romo calmed down and got the next 3 guys on 9 pitches. But this game was now far from over. We still had to sit through another hour of torturous Giants baseball.

The 13th Inning

We were in the 13th inning at AT&T Park as Ty Blach was about to start his 2nd inning of work.

After getting Addison Russell to ground out on 2 pitches, Javier Baez stepped into the box. He was 1-5 in this game and always a scary hitter as he beat us with a home run in Game 1. Well, on the 3rd pitch of the at bat he shoots a ground ball past Crawford into center field for a 1 out hit.

No here’s Wilson Contreras who works himself into a 3-1 count before singling to right field. Cubs are in business now with guys on 1st and 2nd for pinch hitter David Ross.

Pitching coach Dave Righetti goes out to talk to Blach as Ross digs into the box. Big at bat here as Blach faces the right handed hitter with the go ahead run on second base. First pitch to him is a changeup low and away, ball 1. Blach comes back with a fastball and misses low, 2-0. This is getting really scary. The last time I was at a postseason game where the Giants were eliminated was Game 3 of the 1997 NLDS and the Cubs were threatening to recreate that scene right here.

Blach deals the 2-0 and it’s a fastball on the inside corner at 93 mph for strike 1. Then he comes back with offspeed on the 2-1 for strike 2. Huge. Ross hasn’t even taken the bat off his shoulder yet. A few Giants fans here and there start to make some noise, trying to get the yard excited for the 2-2 pitch. Just before Blach comes set Ross steps out and time is called. As he does this, Matt Vasgersian starts talking about the crowd still hanging around (like we weren’t go to) and the FS1 cameras find me and the old man looking extremely worried in our seats.

Finally we get to the 2-2 pitch and Ross hits a chopper to short. Craw charges it and flips to Panik, Panik to Belt and it’s a double play! Wow! If Crawford doesn’t charge this ball they do not turn this as Ross got down the line well for an old catcher. Panik’s turn was also perfect as he got lit up at 2nd base by Contreras. Not as bad as Holliday and Scutaro but there was a lot of heat on the play. Ross can’t believe it and the Cubs will ask for a replay. Replay shows Ross’s foot is an inch or two above first base when Belt caught the ball. The only chance is that maybe Belt’s foot came off the bag. In the end, Ross is called out and we’re going to the bottom of the 13th.

Let’s Go Home

Speaking of Crawford and Panik, these two guys will start the inning off for the Giants at approximately 11:39pm Pacific. This has been a grueling battle and some of us have to drive home an hour after this. I’d really like to see a win.

Crawford steps in the box to face Mike Montgomery who’s been in there since the bottom of the 9th and has pitched well. He’s at 51 pitches through 4 innings and blows a fastball by Crawford to start the 13th. Craw’s 1-5 in this game and is due for a rap. The 0-1 is another fastball, this time taken by Brandon for strike 2. Craw steps out to reassess. On the 0-2 Montgomery throws a big old curveball that hangs up. Craw sees it early and whallops it into right field. Almora cuts it off just before it reaches the wall and fires it back in but Crawford’s into 2nd base with a lead off double!

Here’s Mighty Joe Panik with a chance to send everyone home happy. He swings and misses on the first pitch and it’s 0-1. Panik is 2-3 tonight with 2 walks, seeing well. Definitely the right guy to have up there. The 0-1 is a fastball outside, 1-1. Panik not showing bunt, but he’s a lefty who can pull the ball, moving Craw to 3rd at least. The 1-1 is a curveball that misses badly, 2-1. Montgomery not locating that curveball well so Panik can eliminate that pitch and sit on a fastball. And that’s exactly what he does.

The 2-1 from Montgomery is a fastball up at 93mph and Panik hammers it to deep right center field! Almora chases after it but it hits the base of the 2nd archway and rolls into deeper center field! Crawford appeared to be tagging up on the play and was late to break for the plate but he scores without a throw and the Giants have somehow won this game 6-5! Joe Panik with the clutch hit we’ve been looking for!

The Giants mob Panik out by third base and the celebration slowly gets pushed into left field as the Giants jump, dance, and shout in glee. An incredible win with their backs up against the wall. Starting with the Game 3 win in Cincinnati in the 2012 NLDS, the Giants have now won 10 elimination games in a row. An incredible streak that will be hard for anyone to break. But that was Giants baseball.

We did not know it at the time but that was the last win of the Golden Era of Giants baseball. The next night the Giants blew a 4 run lead in the 9th inning to end their season in a game I was also at, but have almost zero memory of. Which is great! But looking back on it, I can’t believe Johnny Cueto still hasn’t taken the mound in Game 5 at Wrigley. I keep waiting to hear about that game because I still can’t believe how we lost Game 4. Which is why I won’t spend a second longer on it!

A Great At Bat

Everyone will remember the Conor Gillaspie 2 run triple in the bottom of the 8th off of Aroldis Chapman, but few will recall what happened in the very next at bat. Anytime you’re facing Chapman you don’t just have an at bat, you survive an at bat. They should hand you a t-shirt when you get back to the dugout.

But Brandon Crawford came through in a playoff game with a runner on third. He was down 0-2 and then survived 5 more pitches before smoking a grounder back up the middle for the RBI. You can’t strike out there. You’ve got to hit a flyball or get a base hit. He did the latter, and the better.

Odd Stats

Arrieta was 35-1 in the last 2 seasons with a 3 run lead. He gets a no decision in this one.

Bum threw 24 scoreless innings in the postseason before Jake Arrieta’s 3 run homer.

Game 3 was the Giants’ 7th postseason walk off in franchise history.

This game took 5 hours and 4 minutes but was definitely worth it to witness those moments first hand.

If you have suggestions for games you’d like me to highlight, please message me and let me know!

If you’ve been following along this whole time we covered 6 years and 16 remarkable playoff games. How lucky we are as fans to have lived through it. An incredible Giants era was coming to an end but there were still two more outstanding wins worth talking about. The first takes place in New York on October 5, 2016. The Giants limped into the 2nd Wild Card spot after being the best team in baseball in the first half with a 57-33 record. They then lost their first 6 games of the 2nd half and would play a miserable 30-42 for an overall record of 87-75. Still 12 games over .500, but nowhere near how good they were in the first half.

The New York Mets had the same record but because they were 4-3 against the Giants that year, they would host the Wild Card Game. It would be a true battle of aces as Madison Bumgarner would face off against Noah Syndergaard. Nicknamed Thor, Syndergaard was 14-9 in 2016 with with a 2.60 ERA. Giving up the fewest HR per 9 at .5, he was an All Star for the first time in his career. However, the Giants had seen him twice in 2016 and beat him in New York 6-1 on May 1st. But later in August he beat the Giants at home in San Francisco 2-0 going 8 innings and only giving up 2 hits. He was tough. He was Thor.

This would be a true test for a struggling Giants offense that seemed to have collapsed when they traded Forever Giant Matt Duffy away. Many Giants fans think the “Duffy Curse” is still alive and well as they haven’t been a good team since his departure. In his stead, the Giants would call upon Conor Gillaspie. Gillaspie actually came up with the Giants in 2008, playing only 8 games. He would see a few more games in 2011, and 2012 before spending 2 seasons on the White Sox where he was a starter. The Giants would resign him in February of 2016 and once Duffy was out, Gillaspie came up and played 101 games. He would be the Giants third baseman in this one. Maybe he can make everyone forget about Matt Duffy.

An Old Fashioned Pitcher’s Duel

The last time Bumgarner pitched in the postseason was Game 7 of the World Series in 2014. It’s hard to imagine him being better than he was that night, but tonight’s game may have been just as impressive. Syndergaard was mowing the Giants down but he didn’t have the efficiency that Bumgarner did. I think the Mets had an “attack early” plan and they were doing it, only it wasn’t succeeding. Bum threw 7 pitches in the first inning, 7 in the 2nd, and thanks to a first pitch double play by James Loney, got out of the 3rd with a miniscule 21 pitches through three innings.

Thor was relying on the strike out which was raising his pitch count. The Giants plan was to make him work to get him out of there sooner and after three innings was at 37 pitches. Not high, but much higher than Bum’s 21. A 2 inning difference. How long will Thor last?

The Most Important Inning – Defensively

Jumping to the bottom of the 5th it’s still a 0-0 game. Bum’s cruising and he’s only at 49 pitches. Leading it off for the Mets is 2nd baseman T.J. Rivera. He takes a fastball for a strike then on the 0-1 hits a flyball down the left field line that just kind of sticks when it lands about 10 feet fair. Pagan gets to it and heaves it all the way to 2nd base but it’s way offline and Rivera is in there with a leadoff double. Bum made a good pitch on a slider down and in but Rivera got to it and the Giants are in trouble.

Next up is the very dangerous Jay Bruce. Giants would love to shift on him but with the runner on 2nd they have play fairly normal. Craw is basically behind 2nd base, keeping Rivera close. Bum’s first pitch to Bruce is a big old curveball for a strike. All he has to do is hit a ground ball to the right side to move up Rivera and he’ll have a great at bat. The 0-1 is a fastball outside and Bruce checks his swing and it’s 1-1. The third pitch is another fastball and Bruce chops it down the first base line just foul. Belt would have made the out easily and it would have been productive for Bruce, but it’s just a strike. Bum gets a new ball and rubs it up. Rivera takes his lead as the Giants ace looks in to Buster for the sign. Curveball. Bum deals and Bruce reaches for it in the dirt to strike out and there’s 1 away. Not a great AB from Bruce who was picked up by the Mets at the trade deadline to hit doubles in that scenario. He would go 0-3.

Next up is the other Rivera, Rene Rivera. He’s going to battle Bum and get himself into a full count. On the 3-2 pitch with the go ahead run on 2nd, Rene hits a little ground ball right at Crawford. T.J. then finds himself in no man’s land between 2nd and 3rd with nowhere to go. Craw runs at him and after a few tosses to other teammates, the Giants get the out, going 6-5-4-6. But on the play Rene moves all the way up to 2nd base. In the end it’s just as good as a strikeout as there’s still a guy on 2nd but now there’s 2 away.

This brings James Loney to the plate and with Syndergaard on deck they’ll intentional walk him but this was back in the old days when you still had to throw 4 pitches to do this. I recall those days fondly.

Now here’s Thor who swings and misses at a first pitch fastball and it’s 0-1. He was trying to give them the lead with that swing. Syndergaard hit 3 home runs in 2016 so you couldn’t just groove him fastballs. Bum got away with one there. The 0-1 is another fastball fouled back and it’s 0-2. Gotta get him here. Can’t roll the top of the lineup over. Bum deals and the 0-2 is a fastball way high, ball 1. Now at 68 pitches, Bum strikes out Thor with a big old curveball to end the inning. An unfair pitch to throw to another pitcher, but this is the playoffs. Come get some.

Shut Down

Pathetic, disgusting, garbage, and rubbish: these are all words to describe the Giants’ offense in this one. Syndergaard was dominant. Through the first 5 innings he held the Giants hitless while striking out 8. That’s almost 3 innings of just strikeouts. But the Giants were seeing a lot of pitches. Buster Posey had a 7 pitch at bat, Crawford 8, Span 8, Belt 7. The first guy to crack his armor was Denard Span with a 2 out, 2 strike, 6th inning single. He would steal 2nd on the next pitch but Belt would fly out to deepest center field for the 3rd out. Granderson actually made a hell of a play on Belt’s flyball. He ran full speed while catching it on the track and slamming into the wall before he could slow down. A great play that makes Belt slam his helmet down with both hands between 1st and 2nd and shout “God dammit!” at the top of his lungs.

In the top of the 7th the Giants made it interesting again after 2 were out. Crawford would draw a 5 pitch walk, the 3rd of the night for Syndergaard and now he’s at 101 pitches. Angel Pagan digs into the box and puts up a pretty good at bat versus Thor. He gets 5 pitches out of him and on a 2-2 fastball low and away, Pagan rolls it over, hitting it to 1st baseman Loney’s right. Loney can’t get there and it rolls into the outfield grass, getting cut off by 2nd baseman T.J. Rivera. Now it’s a race to the bag between Pagan and Syndergaard. Thor appears to get there in time but Rivera’s throw is way late and Pagan beats it out! Pagan lost his helmet on the swing so he had a little less weight to carry down the first baseline, which is probably how he beat it. Now the Giants have guys on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs.

Syndergaard will stay in the game to face Panik who he’s struck out twice tonight and on the 2nd pitch of the at bat gets him to groundout to end the threat. It started to feel like this game was going to be won 1-0 by a solo HR in the 12th. But that would be the end of Syndergaard’s night. His final line:

7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 SO, 108 pitches, GSc 80

The 9th

If you were making a list of Giants players you thought might homer in this game, you might have picked Gillaspie last. He had 31 total home runs in 8 seasons. However, that just made him more due. His left handed bat was great to have in there against Syndergaard as well as the Mets’ closer, Jeurys Familia. Familia was scary. He lead the league in saves with 51 that year and only gave up 1 home run. He did, however, have a high ERA for a closer at 2.55. So he was touchable. Just don’t expect a big fly.

To start the 9th, Familia would be met by three lefties in a row: Craw, Pagan, and Panik. His first pitch to Crawford is at 96 mph but nowhere near the zone. Maybe he doesn’t have anything tonight. The 0-1 is at 97 mph and Craw fouls it straight back. Ok, so Familia can throw strikes and he’s in the upper 90’s. Great. Next pitch is another fastball but he misses low, then on the 2-1 he tries to go right back there and Crawford is all over it. It came in at 96 mph and went out at about the same speed as Brandon drilled it into the left center field gap. It skips by Cespedes and Crawford is easily into 2nd base with a leadoff double! A huge hit here in the 9th off one of the toughest closers in baseball.

Next up is Pagan who squares around like he’s going to bunt on the first pitch, but takes it for a ball, low. He would square to bunt on the next 4 pitches, fouling two off, bringing the count full. On the 3-2 Familia blows a heater by him at the top of the zone and there’s 1 away. Not a great at bat from Angel.

At his point, Sergio Romo gets up in the bullpen and starts to stretch and toss. A rare sight in a Bumgarner postseason game. Meanwhile, New York native Joe Panik is digging in the box. The first 2 pitches miss badly and on the 2-0 Panik fouls a fastball straight back. Giants having a hard time catching up to the high ones. Panik will foul off the next one and Familia has evened the count at 2-2. Mets fans start to get loud now, wanting another strikeout, but then Familia and Rivera meet on the mound to stifle their roar. The 2-2 is a ball almost in the dirt but Panik gets a piece of it to stay alive. The next 2-2 is a slider that misses badly up and in and it’s a full count. Great at bat by Joe here. On the 3-2 Familia goes back to the fastball and misses outside for the walk. Not the worst thing in the world for the Mets, but not the best thing in the world for the Giants as now the double play is set up and here comes the bottom of the order.

The fourth lefty of the inning is Conor Gillaspie. Conor’s 1-3 tonight but before his at bat there’s a big meeting on the mound facilitated by the Mets’ pitching coach, probably discussing if they want to walk Gillaspie to pitch to Bumgarner with the bases loaded or pitch to Gillaspie and hope that Bum comes up with 2 outs. But then again, if Bum comes up with the bases loaded and 2 outs, do you pinch hit for him? Remember, Pablo Sandoval was in Boston now so they don’t have his bat on the bench. Jarrett Parker did in fact come onto the on deck circle and takes some swings while the Mets met on the mound. So many options here.

The first thing Gillaspie does is walk into the box, spit on his hand, and rub it the dirt. No batting gloves. A man’s man. Familia is at 17 pitches now and he’s only got 1 out. Giants have guys on 1st and 2nd. Conor takes the first pitch at 96 mph on the inside corner for strike 1. All he’s seen is gas tonight. He steps out of the box and rubs his right hand in the dirt again. Long time between pitches here. Familia sets, throws. It’s 96 mph in the dirt and it’s 1-1. Tough inning for Rivera behind the plate as Familia can’t seem to throw 2 strikes in a row, which means the next one should be hitable, right?

He gets a new ball and rubs it up. Crawford takes a modest lead off 2nd, held close by Cabrera, but you have to think all of Familia’s attention is on Gillaspie. Familia comes set, hands high across the Mets logo. He takes a quick glance at Craw and deals. The 1-1 is supposed to be low and away, but he misses up and right down the middle. Conor’s all over it and sends it to deepest right center field. Bruce has a beat on it but he’ll never get there as this ball bangs off the top of the Mets’ bullpen roof for a clutch 3 run homer!

Conor gives the dugout a look and pumps both his hands in the air between 1st and 2nd. The greatest moment of his career.

All Familia can do is watch and wipe his brow. As Gillaspie comes around 3rd he’s still yelling, incredibly pumped up. Syndergaard, who held the Giants to 2 hits through 7 innings stares in complete disbelief at what just happened. A homer unlooked for! It’s only the 2nd home run allowed by Familia all year, and, I’m trying, but I can’t think of a worse time for it.

The next batter isn’t Jarrett Parker either. It’s Madison Bumgarner who’s going back out there but not before he hits a flyball that misses being a home run by about 5 feet. Span would fly out to end the inning but the damage was done. Familia comes in, faces 6 guys, and gives up 3 runs on 27 pitches. His 6th blown save of the year, and last.

Bumgarner would get the Mets in order on 13 pitches in the bottom of the 9th, for his 2nd complete game shutout in a Wild Card game. His final line:

9 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 K, 119 pitches, GSc 83

A Great At Bat

It’s difficult in these games where you score all your runs on one swing of the bat to not give it to the guy with all the RBIs, but I’m not doing that tonight. It was the at bat that started the 9th for the Giants that gets the nod. As you recall, Crawford lead off the 9th with a double off of a very tough closer. When you’re the first guy to face a new pitcher, often times it’s your job to put up a long at bat to see what he’s got, and what he’s capable of. But in the 9th inning, you don’t really have the time to do that. You have to hit your pitch. In Craw’s at bat, he measured a fastball, then fouled the next one back so you could tell he was on it. It may have been more difficult for the Giants to go from a pitcher like Bartolo Colon to Familia because you’d go from 87 mph to 97 mph. But if you’re seeing high 90’s the whole game you get many opportunities to time it and that’s just what Crawford did as he smoked a fastball in the gap to start this incredible inning. Great at bat.

Odd Stats

The only home run that Jeurys Familia gave up all year was back on August 13 in a blown save against San Diego.

The last home run Conor Gillaspie hit was just on September 27 in a 12-3 win over Colorado at home.

Bumgarner only threw 2 other complete game shutouts in 2016: 5-1 W over San Diego on May 17, 4-0 W over Arizona on July 10. He never threw fewer than 5 innings all year.

Bum’s Game Score of 83 was his 4th highest of the year behind 98 (May 17), 85, and 84.

The Giants got 5 hits or less in 36 games in 2016 with a record of 11-25. So it was remarkable that they got the win in New York.

Bumgarner’s numbers in 2 Wild Card Games: 18 IP, 8 H, 3 BB, 16 K, 0.00 ERA, 2 W

Next Blog: 2016 NLDS Game 3 – March 26, 2020

The 2014 World Series was very different from the last two the Giants appeared in. In 2010 and 2012, they had home field advantage playing the first 2 games at home where they won every game. In 2014 however, they had to start on the road so it was an immediate test for them. In Game 1 with Madison Bumgarner on the mound, they easily prevailed for a 7-1 victory over Regular Season Game James and Co. But then something happened that hadn’t happened to them since 2002: they lost 2 World Series games in a row. Game 2 was tied at 2 until the Royals blew it open with a 5 run 6th, and would ultimately win 7-2. Game 3 was back home in San Francisco but Escobar ambushed Tim Hudson on the first pitch of the game, hitting a leadoff double and scoring on a Lorenzo Cain groundout. The Royals would win 3-2 so that run made all the difference. However, the Giants would would get their groove back and win the next two games to send the series back to Kansas City. But then Game 6 happened.

Game 6 was like it was played in a different universe. It was like some kid was playing a video game and was so scared to lose the World Series at home that he changed the difficulty level just to get to Game 7. Jake Peavy started and went 1.1 IP giving up 5 ER on only 42 pitches for a Game Score of 23. Meanwhile, the late Yordano Ventura threw 7 innings of 3 hit ball. It was 7-0 after 2. The best thing about Game 6 was that it would only mean 1 game and the Giants could afford to lose one. But on the next night they couldn’t. The next night had to be a W for there was no tomorrow.

Game 7

History wasn’t in the Giants favor tonight as the home team had won the last 9 straight Game 7s. The last time a road team did it was the 1979 Pirates, 35 years earlier. But road games didn’t seem to phase the Giants. In 2010 they clinched every postseason series on the road. In 2012, two of the three series were clinched in gray uniforms. This year they had to win the Wild Card game on the road, but then had the joy of knocking out the Nats and Cards at home to set up the World Series. So if they were going to win this one, it would have to be done on the road against Jeremy Guthrie.

Guthrie was pitching towards the end of a long career spent with Cleveland, Baltimore, Colorado, Kansas City, and would eventually end it with the Nats in 2017. He was never an All Star and only lead the league in categories you don’t want to lead in: losses (twice), hits given up, HRs given up (twice), and in 2014 lead the AL in hitting guys with 14 HBP. So of course he’s starting Game 7. He did, however, beat the Giants in Game 3 pitching 5 innings and giving up only 2 ER. Maybe he can repeat that performance.

He’d be matched up against Tim Hudson who was just happy to be here. Huddy would go only 1.2 innings before Bochy handed the ball to Jeremy Affeldt, making it a Jeremy vs. Jeremy ballgame. But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Let’s jump into this one.

The 2 Greatest Sac Flies In the History Of Sac Flies

Guthrie would throw a clean, 5 pitch top of the first and Hudson would navigate the top of the Royals lineup with only a walk to Aoki. So here we are in a scoreless top of the 2nd and 2012 World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval is leading it off. Remember how I said Guthrie lead the league in hitting batters in 2014? Well, he adds to it by hitting Panda on the 2nd pitch of the at bat. Let’s be real though, it barely scraped the sleeve on Pablo’s arm and he may have never even felt it. Nonetheless, he’s on first base with no outs and here’s Hunter Pence who is on fire.

Pence may as well just come to the plate with 2 strikes on him already because it seems every at bat he’s 0-2, but he’s only struck out twice in this World Series. Guthrie gets 2 quick strikes on him here but on the 0-2, he misses his spot and Pence grounds it through the 5.5 hole for a rap, and it’s 1st and 2nd no out.

This brings up Brandon Belt who Bochy elects not to bunt this time. Guthrie gets him to 2 strikes but again fails to put his guy away as Belt rips a changeup through the right side for hit! Panda has to hold up to make sure it’s not caught, but the bases are now loaded for Michael Morse.

The last time we heard from Morse he was hitting a pinch hit HR to tie NLCS Game 5 in the 8th. Now he’s in another position to be a hero. Just can’t strike out. He fouls Guthrie’s first pitch straight back and it’s 0-1. It was a changeup. Guthrie’s been throwing good ones all night. The next pitch, however, is a fastball at 93 mph. Morse is a bit late on it but catches some barrel and sends it to deep right on a line. Aoki’s running back but he’s got a beat on it, makes the catch, spins, and throws it back in. Panda tags and scores easily and Pence moves up to 3rd on the Morse sac fly. Morse hitting it to right field was the best outcome because it allowed Pence to move up as well. If he had flied out to left there’s a good chance Pence is still on 2nd when Crawford comes up. So Morse drives in the go ahead run AND moves up the possible 2nd run while making an out. It was a short AB, but a great AB. Gets the job done in 2 different ways. Here’s Crawford.

Craw’s in no rush here. Make Guthrie work out there. Make him think about it. He takes the first pitch all the way and it’s a ball. Guthrie comes back with a changeup in the dirt and Craw takes all the way for ball 2. It seems Guthrie has lost control of that changeup that was so good in Game 3 and the first inning tonight. Guthrie gets a new ball and rubs it up, looks in for the sign. The 2-0 pitch is a 92 mph fastball right down the middle and Craw’s all over it. He sends Lorenzo Cain to deep left center field who makes the catch. Pence tags and scores easily and it’s 2-0 Giants on 2 productive outs!

Juan Perez will then strike out on 3 pitches but the Giants have done some damage early and it’s huge to score first in a Game 7, especially when you’re on the road.

The Royals Make It Scary

So the Giants have just given Tim Hudson a 2 run lead as he takes the mound in the bottom of the 2nd. The Royals have to feel deflated and that they have no chance now right? Well, Billy Butler will lead off and drive the 2nd pitch he sees into center field for a lead off hit. Then on the next pitch Alex Gordon drives one into the right center field gap to score Butler from 1st and it’s now 2-1 Giants with the tying run on 2nd and no outs! Then on the next pitch Hudson drills Salvador Perez right above his left knee and he has to take a few minutes to shake it off. This, as it turns out, gives Jeremy Affeldt more time to get ready in the bullpen. Salvy ends up limping down to first base with his trainer and Ned Yost as Mike Moustakas digs into the box. So after it took the Giants 15 pitches to score 2 runs, the Royals have now got one of those runs back and have the tying and go ahead runs on base after only 4 pitches from Hudson.

Moustakas is probably thinking about crushing one into the waterfalls right now. Hudson’s first pitch to him is way in the dirt, ball 1. Hudson’s lost it and he’s only thrown 24 pitches. The 1-0 is lined to Juan Perez in left, who initially turned the wrong way on the ball, turns back, and makes the catch. Gordon tags from 2nd and Perez makes a fairly great throw to Panda at 3rd but it’s a bit late and the tying run is now only 90 feet away (this wouldn’t be the last time Gordon would reach 3rd base in this game).

Two pitches later, Omar Infante would line an 88 mph splitter into center field but it’s right at Blanco who makes the catch. Gordon tags and scores and this game is tied. The Royals are jumping all over Hudson as no batter has seen more than 2 pitches this inning. This trend continues as Escobar swings at the first pitch and lines one past Panda into left field to ends Hudson’s night, and season.

Jeremy Affeldt would enter the game and get Nori Aoki to groundout on, you guessed it, 2 pitches, and the Giants were out of the inning. But it was an odd inning. The bottom of the 2nd looked like this:

2 pitchers, 7 batters, 1 hit by pitch, 3 hits, 2 runs, 11 pitches.

Angels In The Infield

In the box score, the bottom of the 3rd looked like this:

Single, Ground Ball Double Play, Groundout.

But there was a bit more to it than that. It was a 2-2 ball game and Jeremy Affeldt was back out there trying to get 3 more outs for Bruce Bochy. Lorenzo Cain lead off with a hell of an 8 pitch at bat, ripping a single to right field to cap it off. This brings Eric Hosmer to the plate. Known more for his glove, Hosmer hit .270 in 2014 with only 9 HRs. But this was a big spot. The go ahead run was on base with no outs and the heart of their order is up.

Hosmer fouls off Affeldt’s first pitch for a quick 0-1. Cain is a threat to steal so Affeldt checks on him twice to the joy of the KC fans. Now Jeremy comes set as Cain takes a big lead. He’s not running and Hosmer hits a hot grounder back up the middle. Joe Panik (#ForeverGiant) takes 2 steps and dives to his right, full body extended, and snags it! He belly flops on the ground and with Cain running there’s no time to get his throwing hand on the ball so he flips it out of his glove right to Crawford at 2nd. Craw catches it above his head to his left, squares his body up to first base and flings a bullet to Belt.

Hosmer, who’s never ran up the line faster in his life, dives head first into the bag. First base umpire Eric Cooper calls him safe and for now it’s an incredible 4-6 to get Lorenzo Cain off the bases. The umpires will look at this one back in New York and after a 2 minute 57 second delay they call Hosmer out at first and it’s now an incredible 6-4-3 double play! Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford with the turn of the year when it mattered most! If Panik took his time to exchange that ball from his glove to his throwing hand, they wouldn’t have got anyone on that play. Instead it goes down as perhaps the greatest double play in World Series history.

Billy Butler would then ground out to Crawford to end the inning but not before squeezing 9 more pitches out of Affeldt.

Panda Makes Something Happen

This brings us to the top of the 4th and who else would be leading it off but Pablo Sandoval. Guthrie is still in there but he’s got a short leash. On the 2-1 pitch Panda chops one up the middle to Infante’s right. He fields with his bare hand at the edge of the outfield grass but slips as he makes his throw, spiking the ball into the ground and falling down. The ball gets to Hosmer at first but it’s just too late as Sandoval beats it out with his very famous speed.

This brings Hunter Pence to the plate and, you guessed it, takes a strike. The 0-1 is inside and it’s not 0-2 to Pence. A ball unheard of! Guthrie’s 1-1 to Hunter is flipped into center field and Cain, who was playing very deep, charges in for this one but there’s no chance for him and he plays it on a hop. Pence is 2-2 tonight and that’s his 12th hit in this World Series (he would bat .444 with 3 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 7 Runs).

So the Giants are in business again with guys on 1st and 2nd and nobody out. This is where the play of the inning happens. Belt’s at the plate and Ned Yost is leaving Guthrie out there with the run that would win the World Series on 2nd base. Guthrie gets him to 1-1 and on the 3rd pitch Belt hits a high fly ball to left. Gordon was playing shallow with the lefty hitting and has to track back a ways. He ends up catching it above his head, reaching across his body, falling away from the infield. Perennial speedster Pablo Sandoval sees all this coming together and decides to tag up! Gordon unleashes a big throw, air mailing his cutoff man. It one hops to Moustakas at 3rd but Panda slides in headfirst ahead of the tag and it’s another productive tag up for the Giants!

We would later learn that Hunter Pence played a big role in that play. He was on first base and ran all the way out to 2nd where Pablo was tagging up. He began to shout something like, “Tag up! Make something happen! Be a hero!” Then Gordon caught it sending Pence back to first base as Panda was off to the races. Great cheerleading by Pence, and a great at bat by Belt to move up the run that would win the World Series.

Morse

Micheal Morse was the DH in this game and had already contributed to the 1st run of this game. Due to fantastic base running by Sandoval, Morse has another opportunity to come up huge. But the soft throwing Guthrie is done for the night and Ned Yost has brought in Kelvin Herrera.

In Morse’s first at bat he was a bit late on a fastball and lined it into right field for a sac fly. With Herrera in, he was going to see a lot more fastballs. Just faster fastballs. Guthrie topped out at 93, but Herrera was known to hit three digits. His first pitch is at 97 and Morse chops it foul. The 0-1 is 99 mph up out of the zone but Morse fouls it back as well. Another 0-2 count on the Giants. But that seems to be when they thrive. Morse steps out of the box for a breath as Royals fans try to get excited. Perhaps they’ve learned that when your teams supplies you with white rally towels, you’re going to lose.

Morse digs back in and Herrera comes set and deals another fastball. Another one at 99 and Morse gets jammed, breaking his bat, but because his DNA is partially from Paul Bunyan he fists it out into shallow right field for a hit!

Panda scores easily and Pence comes all the way around to 3rd! Another 2 strike hit for the Giants and more great situational hitting. The Giants were doing the little things and it was going to win them the World Series.

The Greatest 5 Inning Save In History

Jeremy Affedlt would get through the 4th inning unscathed and after a scoreless top of the 5th, Brucy Bochy signaled for the greatest pitcher in World Series history, Mason Saun- er, um, oh yeah, Madison Bumgarner. Only three days earlier Bumgarner had thrown 117 pitches in a complete game shutout of the Royals at home in San Francisco. Now he’s on the mound in the 5th inning of Game 7, and is probably going to be asked to finish this one.

I imagine the Royals watching Bumgarner walk in from the right field bullpen as if he was some lone bounty hunter from Red Dead Redemption II, coming into town to take down the gang of bad guys. Royals fans shutting their windows and locking their children in the cellar.

Due up for the Royals are the 9-1-2 spots in the lineup with Omar Infante to lead it off. Bum’s first pitch is a ball up and away. Then he finds the zone with a strike on the inside, Infante taking all the way. On the 3rd pitch Omar lines one into right field and the Royals have their leadoff man on. Royals fans think they have a chance now and are as loud as they’ve been all night.

Now the lineup rolls over with Escobar. He would lay down a sac bunt on a 2-0 pitch and the Royals now have the tying run on 2nd with 1 out. Here’s Nori Aoki who’s known for his speed and his swing has shades of Ichiro in it. After falling behind 2-0 Bum gets him to line out to Juan Perez who made a really nice catch running to his right. That ball was slicing away from him but with his speed was able to get there and there’s 2 outs. That’s exactly why he was starting over Ishikawa. After a good battle with Lorenzo Cain, Bum gets him to strike out on a high fastball and he’s out of the inning.

After that, Bumgarner bared down and was his absolute unhitable self. In the 6th, 7th, and 8th he would face the minimum, giving up no hits and no walks on 37 pitches. A true horse.

The 9th

After Michael Morse’s go ahead single in the 4th this game started to fly by. There were 5 total hits over the last 5 innings as pitching took over. It was still 3-2 Giants as Bumgarner took the mound in the bottom of the 9th. He was efficient, only at 52 pitches, and you knew he had over 100 in him.

The first guy to greet him was Eric Hosmer. Royals fans are all standing now, doing anything they can to help get a rally going against this man-beast from Hell. After two pitches it’s 2-0 to Hosmer and the crowd thinks Bum’s finally lost it. But to their dismay, he finds the zone on the 2-0 and Hosmer takes all the way. The 2-1 is fouled back and now Bum’s back in the count 2-2. The Royals have so much speed on the bench it’s important to keep Hosmer off the bases here. Now the 2-2 is a fastball up and Hosmer swings and misses for the strike out, and there’s 1 away in the 9th.

Next is Billy Butler, the longest tenured Royal. He’s 1-3 tonight. On the 1-1 Bum gets him to pop it up on the right side. Belt drifts into foul territory and makes the play with plenty of room and now the Giants are 1 out away from their 3rd championship in 5 years.

But now it’s Alex Gordon and things are about to get exciting. The first pitch from Bum is a fastball right down the middle and Gordon fouls it back. Bumgarner actually got pretty lucky with that one but no one will remember it. Now things get crazy. Buster calls for the offspeed low and away and Bum puts it there, but Gordon is able to get good wood on it and he flips it into shallow right center field. Blanco comes charging in but decides too late that he can’t get there and the ball skips past him! Perez wasn’t really backing him up, instead was next to him, probably hoping he was about to hug him. Instead, he finds himself sprinting after the baseball that’s rolling all the way to the wall. He finally reaches it up against the fence but then drops it and it rolls 6 feet away from him!

Meanwhile Gordon is around 2nd base and thinking about an inside the parker to tie the game! Perez finally gets the ball back in and it short hops Craw who makes a great play himself just to hold Gordon at 3rd.

Literally nobody saw this coming and this game has a completely different feel to it. Royals fans who couldn’t bare to watch when Gordon hit that ball are now jumping around in mad celebration. They’re just forgetting one thing, that didn’t win this game nor tie it. It was just a 2 out single and an error and it’s still 3-2 Giants. It does, however, put a ton of pressure on the defense because now any mistake ties this game up.

What’s more is that this brings Salvador Perez to the plate who already homered off Bum back in Game 1. So he’s literally the scariest guy that could be in the box right now. The first pitch to him is a swing and a miss on a 92 mph fastball, strike one. Scary. The 0-1 is another fastball up but it’s a ball and we’re even at 1-1. Bum’s pace is a quick one despite the weight of this situation. Most pitchers try to use up as much time as possible but Bum’s just wants to end this thing.

The 1-1 is another fastball up high and it’s swung at and missed for strike 2! Salvy wasn’t close on that one. Giants are one strike away now. Tense moment. The 1-2 is way high again and it’s a ball. Bum’s at 66 pitches out of the bullpen now. The 2-2 is high and in on the hands and Salvy fouls it back, lucky to get a piece of it.

In 2010 Brian Wilson struck out Nelson Cruz with a high fastball. In 2012 Sergio Romo struck out Miggy with a fastball. Now Bumgarner will try to add Salvador Perez to this short list.

Royals fans all standing, cheering, trying to jinx the Giants’ ace. He looks into Posey who wants to keep attacking up and in. Gordon takes his lead at 3rd. Bum comes set. Looks in. Deals.

The 68th pitch from Bumgarner is a 93 mph fastball that barrels in to Salvador. He swings, popping it up, and this one’s playable. Sandoval, who was playing almost at the edge of the outfield grass comes running in to foul ground. He passes Alex Gordon, standing in dismay. He passes through the coach’s box and over the World Series logo on the grass in front of the Giants’ dugout. Then, just before the edge of the warning track, the ball falls into his glove and Sandoval falls to the ground with his hands in the air!

Buster and Bum share a hug on the mound as Buster buries his head in Bumgarner’s chest. The guys in the dugout burst onto the field, each trying to hug the greatest World Series pitcher in the history of major league baseball.

No one may be happier than Gregor Blanco and Juan Perez who were probably praying to the baseball gods to get them out of this game with a parade scheduled. The intensity of this game was so overwhelming that when the final out was made, the emotions were that much higher. It wasn’t like in 2012 when they swept the Tigers. There was room for error as they were up 3 games to none. This was Game 7 and the tying run was on 3rd base in a 1 run game. It was almost made up. It was absolutely nerve wracking as a fan as all you could do was watch. My emotions were so high that I had to cry for 5 minutes. An incredible game with a science fiction ending.

A Great At Bat

A tough decision for this game too. Pence had 2 hits, Crawford had a clutch sac fly. However, Michael Morse got the scoring going with a sac fly himself, then had a huge 2 strike base hit off a Kelvin Herrera 99 mph fastball that ended up driving in the winning run of the World Series. He saw 3 pitches, all for strikes, and each one harder to hit than the last. If he doesn’t get it done, maybe we’re playing extras and Bumgarner ends up throwing 110 pitches into the 13th! But Morse came through, and for that reason wins tonight’s award.

Odd Stats

Jeremy Affeldt’s 2.1 innings made it 22 consecutive scoreless postseason innings for him. The 3rd longest all time for a reliever. It was also the longest outing of his postseason career and longest outing since 2012.

The Panik-Crawford double play review was the first overturned call in World Series history.

Pence was 7-12 (.583) with 2 strikes in the World Series.

This was the first Game 7 in history when neither starter lasted more than 3.1 innings pitched.

Bumgarner’s last relief appearance was Game 6 of the 2010 NLCS in Philadelphia.

Bumgarner threw 291 pitches over 52.2 innings in the postseason.

Next Blog: 2016 Wild Card Game – March 20, 2020

For the 3rd time in 5 years the Giants were in the World Series and Giants’ fans were starting to get used to it. Manager Brucy Bochy had truly shown he knew how to win in October. All the team had to do was get him there. None of the three Giants’ teams to reach the World Series were the best team in the league so they were underdogs in almost every single postseason series. In 2010 they were 92-70, second most wins behind the Phillies’ 97. 2012 was the Giants’ best year at 94-68 but they still had fewer wins than the Nats and Reds, and were tied with Braves. This year, at 88-74, they just snuck in as the second Wild Card team. But that’s no matter. Just get Bochy into October and he’ll take it from there… with a little aid from Madison Bumgarner.

The Giants would be playing Kansas City this year. In their Wild Card game, the Royals came back to win one of the most amazing postseason games in the history of the sport. They were trailing 7-3 entering the bottom of the 8th and put on a severe ground attack. With 2 walks, a wild pitch, and 4 stolen bases were able to put up a 3 spot, then tied it in the 9th on a sac fly. The A’s would take the lead in the 12th but with the help of another stolen base and a Salvy single, the Royals walked it off. A very different game than the Giants 8-0 stomping over Pittsburgh.

So the 2014 World Series was a battle of teams that won the Wild Card game. The first time this happened was in 2002 and it also involved the Giants. That series went 7 games, as you may recall, and the Giants ended up not having a parade. But the 2002 team didn’t have Madison Bumgarner on their roster. Despite being 24, Bumgarner was clearly the ace of the team. The other postseason starters were Tim Hudson (38), Vogelsong (36), and Jake Peavy (33). At this point in the year, Hudson was tired. He and Vogey had thrown 180+ innings, and Peavy only 78.2 IP, but looked tired as well. If the Giants were going to win their 3rd trophy in 5 years, they would need Bum to pick up some slack.

He did his part in Game 1 of the WS by throwing 7 innings of 3 hit, 1 ER ball for the W. Peavy and Hudson would start the next 2 games and lose both. After a rough start by Vogey in Game 4, the Giants bats would wake up in the 5th with a 2 spot to tie the game at 4. Then in the 6th and 7th the Giants would score 7 and win going away 11-4. This brings us to Game 5: the last game at AT&T Park for the year and Bumgarner’s final start of the postseason.

Snowball’s Chance In Hell

The difference between Bumgarner’s pitching and the rest of the Giants rotation was stark. With Bum on the mound you knew the Giants were going to win. It was the other days that made you pull your hair out. If he was a Disney character, he’d be Beast of “Beauty and the Beast”. Game 1 proved the Royals couldn’t hit him. But this was their second chance. Now they’ve seen him and can adjust. In Bum’s career he’s never pitched twice in the same World Series. To this point in October, Bumgarner’s started 5 games and has held opponents to a bleak .162 average. In those 38.2 IP his ERA is an incredible 1.40. I think the scientific world calls that Absolute Dominance.

The top of the 1st inning was the tone setter. Alcides Escobar leads off and flies out on the first pitch of the game. Swinging at the first pitch was something he’d become famous for the next postseason when the Royals would win the World Series over the Mets in 5 games. So Escobar’s gone on 1 pitch and Bum would get Gordon to ground out and after a Lo Cain single, would strike out Hosmer on 4 pitches. He had a quick pace and was attacking the zone, forcing the Royals to swing early, and keeping his pitch count low.

Jumping to the top of the 5th, this was the best chance the Royals had against Bum. At this point it’s 2-0 Giants and Bum’s at 50 pitches, retiring 10 in a row and throwing 12 of 14 first pitch strikes. Moustakas leads off the inning and swings at the first pitch, hitting a soft line drive to shallow center field that would have been a hit if Crawford wasn’t shifter so far over. A great call by the Giants’ defensive coaches to place him there. Next up is Omar Infante who flips a 2-1 fastball into shallow left center. Ishikawa breaks late and ends up diving for it, not coming close and it bounces by him. Blanco has to back him up but it’s too late and Infante is on 2nd with a 1 out double. A more experienced outfielder would have stayed on his feet to play that ball, keeping Infante at 1st. But we will forgive Travis for that one. Bumgarner would then take care of Dyson and Shields by striking them both out, giving him 7 K’s through 5.

That was the biggest threat of the game by Kansas City. A 1 out double that never advanced. In the 9 innings pitched by Bumgarner, the most batters he faced in an inning was 4 (top of 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th). Other than that it was 3 up, 3 down all game. Absolute Dominance.

B Craw

When you’re on a championship winning team everyone contributes. It’s a new guy every night. You can’t rely on just your cleanup hitter or your horse on the mound. Tonight, the baseball gods would look fondly upon Brandon Crawford.

Craw already had a huge moment this postseason as his 4th inning grand slam ended the Pirates season in the Wild Card game. But since then he went 11-50 for a .220 postseason average. But you don’t need to get hits to come up huge. Sometimes all you need to do is hit a fly ball or even ground out to 2nd.

The bottom of the 2nd of Game 5 began with a Hunter Pence single on a 0-2 pitch from Big Game James. Certainly that nickname was given to him before the 2014 World Series began. In any case, Pence is on 1st with no outs for Brandon Belt, who had a huge moment for himself too this postseason. It’s well known that Belt is a pull hitter and teams often shift on him. Even with Pence on 1st that’s exactly what Kansas City does as they make short stop Escobar the only guy on the left side of the infield. Well, Belt notices this and on Shields’ first pitch he lays down a great bunt to the left side! It rolls past Shields as Escobar charges and barehand’s it. Belt, hustling down the line, loses his helmet as he stretches for that final step to the bag and Escobar actually makes this play a lot closer than it should have been but Belt just beats it and the Giants are in business with 2 on and no outs. It’s quite literally bang-bang at first. Replays show Belt beats it by about 5 inches. Hosmer doesn’t really help out his short stop on this play with a lame stretch that allows the baby giraffe to beat it out. This brings up NLCS hero Travis Ishikawa.

Travis would put up a hell of 7 pitch at bat and would eventually make a productive out. On a full count pitch he hits a high deep drive almost to the warning track in center field. Giants know Dyson has no arm and Pence and Belt are both able to tag up on the play! A rare double tag!

Now it’s Crawford with guys on 2nd and 3rd. We were just talking about him! He must do something good here! Craw swings and fouls the first pitch, strike 1. Shields comes back wih offspeed stuff in the dirt to make it 1-1. A lot of time between pitches here as Shields steps off, thinking about a new nickname. The third pitch is way outside, easy take for Craw. Giants making him work here. But Craw swings badly at a great changeup to even the count at 2-2, way ahead of it. With Bumgarner on deck this is a huge at bat here. You have a base open so you don’t have to groove one. The 2-2 is another changeup but it’s outside. That’s 3 in a row. Does he go with 4? Full count to Craw. Shields deals another changeup but this time Crawford a bit early on it and rolls it over to second base. With Pence’s speed on 3rd he scores easily on the 4-3 and the Giants are up 1-0 on 2 productive outs in a row.

Odd that Ned Yost chose not to play the infield in in that scenario. That would have been right at a drawn in 2nd baseman and Pence may have been out at home and no runs would have scored that inning. Instead, 1 run is all it takes to defeat them. Great at bat by the Forever Giant Brandon Crawford.

In Craw’s next at bat, he’s got runners in scoring position again, this time with 2 outs. It’s the bottom of the 4th, still 1-0 Giants. Panda started it with a single, but then strike outs by Pence and Belt have put Shields an out away from getting through 4 but first he has to deal with Travis. Ishikawa will not go quietly and on the second pitch he sees singles under Escobar’s glove into left field to move Sandoval up to second.

So here’s B Craw again with a chance to drive in another run. Pitching him carefully, Shields has got the count to 2-2 and the fifth pitch is a curve ball that Craw goes down to get and flips it into shallow center! Dyson, with great speed, charges but it drops for a hit! Panda starts to hold up at third but Dyson kicks it and he ends up scoring easily and it’s 2-0 Giants! Unclear why Panda started to put the breaks on there. With 2 outs you’re not waiting to see if it gets caught, you’re off to the races. Also, Shields had Craw where he wanted him but couldn’t put him away. You can tell all Crawford was trying to do in both at bats was put it in play and not do too much. Two fantastic ABs from the Giants’ short stop.

Juan Perez

It was the bottom of the 8th, Giants still up 2-0 and setup man Kelvin Herrera, who threw a scoreless 7th was still in there. Sandoval greets him with a single to center, followed by a Pence single to left (those two are always so good together in the postseason). That’s all for Herrera and Yost brings in fireballer Wade Davis to get the next 3 outs. After a 6 pitch battle against Belt, Davis gets him looking for out number 1. Enter Juan Perez.

Juan Perez came up with the Giants in 2013 primarily for his speed and defense. In 2014, however, he played in 61 games. Despite a .170 average, Bochy elected to put him on the World Series roster as a late inning defensive replacement. That’s exactly what happened in this game. Ishikawa singled with 1 out in the 6th and Perez came in to run for him. Earlier that day Perez learned that a close friend of his, Cardinals’ outfielder Oscar Taveras, was killed the day before a car accident at age 22. The news of his death devastated Perez. But he had no time to grieve because he was playing in a World Series game.

Davis’ first pitch to him is at 96 and Perez swings right through it. He steps out of the box, pondering how to hit something at that velocity. The 0-1 is a fastball on the outside that Perez fouls straight back. He was on that one, but now is down 0-2. But Davis starts to nibble instead of going right after him. The next two pitches are easy takes low and outside and it’s 2-2. Perez fouls the 5th pitch off to stay alive, making Davis work. The next 2-2 is a 95 mph fastball way high and it’s a full count. Great at bat by Perez here. The fans start to get loud. Now Juan can look fastball and that’s exactly what he gets. Davis tries to blow 96 past him again but he grooves it right down the middle and Perez doesn’t miss it. He hammers it to centerfield towards the tv cameras.

Lorenzo Cain was playing on the other side of second base and has a long way to run for this one. Perez’s shot bangs high off the top of the wall, missing leaving the yard by about 4 inches. Cain plays the ricochet nicely and gets the ball in quickly to Escobar who relays it home but it’s not in time to get Pence as he slides in right behind Pablo! The ball gets away and Perez moves up to third with a big headfirst slide, pumping his fists in the air right in front of the Giants dugout.

No one’s happier for him than Hudson and Peavy who knew how much Taveras’s death effected Perez. They hug in the dugout as this moment is bigger than baseball. Meanwhile the stadium is going nuts as the Giants have finally broken this game open. What a clutch AB from a guy who’s seen little playing time. A huge moment and it’s 4-0 San Francisco.

The next guy up is Crawford so of course he flips a single into left to score Perez and it’s 5-0. A huge 3 RBI night for Brandon and the crowd gets fired up to the tune of Zombie Nation.

The 9th

Bum was already at 107 pitches but you know he had 100 left in him. No way he was coming out of this one. First pitch to Alex Gordon is a strike and on the 0-1 gets him to fly out to Pence. His first pitch to Cain is a strike and on the 0-1 gets him to ground out to short. So, quickly here in the 9th, Bum is 1 out away from the first complete game shutout in a World Series game since Josh Beckett closed out Game 6 at Yankee stadium in 2003.

Hosmer SWINGS and misses and it’s 0-1. Then Bum blows 92 right through him for strike 2. 43,000 people are on their feet, waiting to watch history happen as they try to finish their garlic fries. Bum then just misses outside, then gets Hosmer to check his swing but it’s a ball and it’s now 2-2. Bum can’t really believe the call on that one, but he’s so close to finishing this game he doesn’t give homeplate umpire Bill Miller any grief. The 2-2 is another ball JUST outside and it’s a full count. Bum’s working quickly here. Then on the full count pitch, Bumgarner finally gets Hosmer to ground out to Panda and that’s the ballgame!

A 117 pitch complete game shutout for Bum and it’s his second shutout of the postseason. He ties Christy Mathewson as the only pitchers in franchise history to throw 2 CG in a postseason. Mathewson threw his 109 years earlier in 1905! Bum improves to 4-0 in his World Series career with a .29 ERA which is the lowest all time with a minimum of 3 starts. A hero.

The Royals have to think that’s the last they’ve seen of him and can breath easy because now they’re going back home for a chance to force a Game 7. Plus, they’ve got Bumgarner out of the way. No way they see him again, right?

A Great At Bat

I would love to give this award to Juan Perez for his 6 pitch battle against Wade Davis in the 8th, but I can’t. Brandon Crawford had 3 RBIs in 4 at bats, driving in the first 2 runs of the game, the eventual game winners. His at bats were more “situational” too. With less than 2 outs and a guy on 3rd, all you need to do is hit a ground ball. You can’t strike out. He got the job done with 2 strikes. In the 4th, he had a guy on 2nd with 2 outs. In that situation, you need to get a hit to score him. He did that with 2 strikes again! Lastly in the 8th with a guy on 3rd and 1 out all you need to do is hit a fly ball or another grounder. Crawford got another hit. With 2 strikes! All 3 RBI came with 2 strikes. Crawford went deep into the count in every at bat, making the pitcher work. He saw 19 pitches in this game, second only to Panik’s 20. For these reasons, B Craw gets the W today.

Odd Stats

In this World Series, Royals pitchers threw 28 pitches with 2 strikes to Hunter Pence and they only struck him out once.

Belt had zero career bunt hits before his 2nd inning hit.

Wade Davis went 19 straight appearances without giving up a run before Perez and Crawford touched him for 3.

Juan Perez was 1-18 with RISP in 2014 before his 2 run double.

For the first time since 1948 there were 3 consecutive WS games played with no homeruns.

Bum is the 4th left handed pitcher to throw 2 shutouts in a single postseason joining Whitey Ford, Sandy Koufax, and Randy Johnson.

Ken Rosenthal asked Bumgarner after the game, “If there’s a Game 7, will you be available for it?” Bum just says, “You know it. Always.”

Next Blog: 2014 World Series Game 7 – March 13, 2020

Having use of season tickets for 30 years I have been to a lot of games. The first game I ever attended was at Candlestick Park in approximately 1986 at the age of 2. Since then I have bounced around the country and have now seen games in 16 different big league ballparks, attended 5 All Star Games and HR Derbys, 26 playoff games, and 10 World Series games. Given all of that, one game comes to mind as the best game I have ever been to: Game 5 of the 2014 NLCS.

It was a battle of aces as Madison Bumgarner took on Adam Wainwright. The Giants were up 3 games to 1 already having split the first 2 in St. Louis and taking the first 2 games in San Francisco. Waino was pitching to save the Cardinals’ season by getting a W in AT&T Park. Up to this point the Giants had won their last 5 postseason games against the Cardinals at home (3 in a row in ’12, 2 so far in ’14) and were looking to continue that streak. A win here would send them to the World Series for the 3rd time in 5 years. Let’s talk about this.

The Cards Jump Out In Front

The 1st inning was scary immediately. With 1 out Jon Jay lined a single to left field. Then on the next pitch Holliday singled to right and the Cards were in business. But then a base running mistake by Jay got MadBum out of the 1st unscathed! Peralta lined one at third that Panda leapt for and snagged, then doubled Jay off at 2nd who didn’t freeze. You actually have to do more than freeze. You have to take a step back to the base to really give them no chance at doubling you. Jay went one step too far and could have been called safe but his fingers were stretched out over the bag instead of touching it, much like a guy sliding into home who’s front foot stays up. Because of that, Bum was out of the inning on 9 pitches, but that wasn’t the last we’d hear of Jon Jay.

Jumping to the top of the 3rd, Bumgarner walks Tony Cruz to start it off. After a sac bunt by Wainwright and a walk to Carpenter, the Cards have 2 on and 1 out and here’s Jon Jay again (see, I told you). Jay’s been a real thorn in the Giants’ ass this series. Overall, he’d go 9-18 (.500), but only score 2 runs and drive in 1. And that 1 happens right here. Jay hits the first pitch from Bum into left center field, a playable ball actually. However, the inexperience of Travis Ishikawa came into play and the ball sailed over his head. He gave it a jump but there was no way to recover from his bad route. Cruz scores easily and it’s 1-0 St. Louis. Now it’s 2nd and 3rd 1 out for Holliday. Scary.

Bum will do a good job against Holliday as he gets him to fly out to shallow center field on 4 pitches. Now here’s Peralta who Bum has some ownage on as he’s only 1-14 against him. Bumgarner starts the at bat with 4 fastballs in a row to get to 2-2. The sold out crowd gets loud now, waving their orange rally towels but Bum misses with a ball and it’s 3-2. A long at bat here by Peralta. On the 6th pitch Jhonny lines one to left field, but this one is right at Travis who makes the catch easily and the Giants are out of the inning but trail 1-0. Bum got lucky there as Peralta got barrel to it. But if you’re going to win a pennant, you need some luck.

2 Out Panik

It’s the bottom of the 3rd and Waino is doing Waino things. He’s at 27 pitches and very efficient. He will continue his dominance as he gets Craw to ground out to 1st and Bum to pop out to 3rd. But this rolls the lineup over and it’s Blanco who lead off this game with a single to right. He’s not going to wait around and he jumps all over a first pitch fastball from Wainwright and he drills it into right field. He’s seeing it well. That brings up the rookie Joe Panik. Panik only played 73 games with the Giants, splitting time with Forever Giants Brandon Hicks and Dan Uggla. But Panik was on fire. Over those 73 games he hit .305 and was flashing the leather at 2nd base. The Crawford/Panik double play combo quickly became the best in baseball and they will forever be known as “Crawnik”.

Meanwhile, Joe Panik is digging in the box for his 2nd at bat against Wainwright. Waino starts him with a fastball way inside and it’s 1-0. Panik leans out of the box with a hitter’s count, adjusting his sleeves. Wainwright, working quickly, tries to run another fastball inside but it gets too much strike zone. Panik is able to get barrel to it and sends it high down the right field line. The crowd erupts, knowing it has the distance but will it stay fair? A lot of guys lose sure homers because of the slice, but Panik is able to hit this ball straight and it lands in the arcade for a 2 run big fly and the Giants have the lead! A home run unlooked for! Panik only had 1 in 2014 so this was technically his 2nd big league home run and it gives the Giants the lead in a postseason game. Huge for the rook. Huge for the Giants. Huge for all of us.

Buster would ground out to third 2 pitches later but the Giants, and Madison Bumgarner, have the lead. That’ll last right?

F@#$ing Matt Adams

Bum was not typical postseason Bum this game. As fans we came to expect complete game shutouts, not falling behind early. But, he’s human and 4 pitches after we took the lead Matt Adams homered to tie it. This wasn’t going to be easy. Bum had him 1-2 and then tried to throw a curveball in the dirt but it stayed up and Adams went down and got it. The last time Bum gave up a HR to a lefty was back in April. This game was tied and Bum was hitable.

Behind some anger he’s able to retire Randal Grichuk on the first pitch, then strikes out Wong on 3 pitches. This brings up catcher Tony Cruz. 2014 was his fourth year in the big leagues and the most games he every played in a season was 51. You’re not going to see a lot of playing time if you’re job is to backup Yadi. But Molina was hurt for this series and Cruz got the start. That was detrimental to the Cards because Cruz was not in there for his bat as he only hit .200 in 2014 with 1 HR. In fact, from Aug 7th on he hit .120. But none of that matters. What does matter is what he’s about to do against Bum here.

It’s only the top of the 4 and Bumgarner’s at 55 pitches. Cruz is at the plate with 2 outs in a tie game. He swings and misses at a back foot slider pathetically and it’s 0-1. Then on the next pitch, Bum left an 88 mph cutter up and Cruz hammered it half way up the left field bleachers. Maybe we should have kept throwing him sliders. The home fans can’t believe it and just like that the Cards have taken a 3-2 lead with two homers off Bumgarner in the same inning…

So perhaps other than each club’s pitchers, the two guys least likely to go deep in this game have left the yard. That’s got to be the last home run hit in this game right?

Morse Of Course

Michael Morse was a journeyman outfielder that came up with Seattle in 2005, but played his best years as a member of the Washington Nationals from 2009-2012, hitting .294 with 67 HR, and 208 RBI in that span. He split 2013 with Seattle and Baltimore playing only 88 games and looking like his career might be over. But Brian Sabean didn’t think so and the Giants signed the 32 year old Morse for a 1 year deal to be a power bat off the bench, and perhaps hit dingers in huge spots.

Game 5 was progressing quickly and soon enough we found ourselves in the 8th inning with the score still 3-2 red birds. Wainwright had just got through the bottom of the 7th and was done for the night with a final line of: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO, 97 Pitches, 66 Gsc. All Star Pat Neshek with the funky wind up will take over. He appeared in 71 games for St. Louis in 2014 and had a dominant 1.87 ERA. 68 strike outs in 67.1 innings pitched to only 9 walks. A tough guy to face. Especially if you’re brought in the game to face him like Mike Morse was. He hit .279 with 16 home runs for the Giants in 2014 and was actually just activated for this series against the Cards after he had an oblique strain. Welcome back, Michael Morse.

Neshek deals the first pitch of the bottom of the 8th to him and it’s way inside, ball 1. Next pitch is a low fastball that Morse fouls back. A mighty swing. Neshek gets a new ball and paces around the mound a bit, then climbs back up the hill. Morse never leaves the box, looking very zen. He’s looking for HIS pitch. Neshek gets the sign from Cruz and deals the 1-1. It’s a slider at 83 that Cruz wants outside but it never really gets there because Morse’s huge bat gets in the way. This ball is hammered down the left field line and Morse leaves the batter’s box with his hands up in the air like superman. He knows it. 43,000 fans know it. Neshek is WELL aware. That ball is gone and this game is tied.

Morse runs the bases like some excited 11 year old at “kids run the bases day”. Easily the most exciting moment of his career so far and the entire stadium is going nuts. It’s only the 5th pinch hit postseason home run in Giants history, but what a moment for the big guy. One day he’s going to be a part time tv broadcaster!

Neshek will get the next 3 guys out on 7 pitches and we’re off to the 9th at 3-3.

The 9th

Casilla will come in for Bumgarner to pitch the 9th. He was hot in the postseason appearing in 6 games and was 4-4 in save opportunities. But this was also the 3rd game in a row he’s pitched so the Cards are familiar with him. He gets Peralta to ground out to short but then gets in trouble after walking freaking Matt Adams and giving up a Grichuk single. The Cards had something going with 2 on and 1 out. Pitching coach Dave Righetti will come out and have a talk while the Cards pinch run for Adams with Descalso. Rookie Kolten Wong digs into the box with a chance to send his team back to St. Louis for Game 6 if he can find a gap.

But then a gift. Wong swings at the first pitch and chops one to Sandoval’s left. Panda takes two steps and dives for it but it glances off his glove! But wait! There’s Brandon Crawford backing him up and the ball goes right to him! He backhands and fires to 2nd barely getting the force out on Grichuk. An incredible play that could have only been made by an athletic short stop that has the ability to improvise. That ball shot off Panda’s glove with some heat on it and bounced only twice before it reached Craw. Then he had to throw across his body to Panik at 2nd. Panik threw to Belt trying for the double play but Wong was too fast and they could only get the one. Great hands by the Gold Glover. Now the Cards have the go ahead run at 3rd but there’s 2 outs.

Into the box steps the very, very dangerous Tony Cruz (this guy’s taken Madison Bumgarner deep in the postseason). Casilla has a base open so he doesn’t have to groove him anything, and he doesn’t. The first two pitches are balls inside and on the 2-0 Wong steals 2nd without a play and Cruz takes it for a strike. So now the Cards have guys on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. A base hit is huge.

Casilla’s 2-1 pitch is 95 mph right down the middle and Cruz chops it foul at his feet. Casilla got away with one there. 2 strikes now and the fans all get up out of their seats. 40,000 orange towels waving in unison. The 2-2 is another fastball at 95 but it’s way high and Cruz has to duck out of the way of it. A scary moment if you’re Cruz. That ball had “face” written all over it. The count is now full and Casilla’s 17th pitch of the inning is a silder that’s also way high and it’s an easy take for Cruz who works the walk. Ugh. That’s it for Casilla as Bochy makes the move for Affeldt.

Affeldt misses badly inside on the first pitch to Oscar Taveras but is able to find the zone on the next one to even up the count. Taveras looks like he was taking all the way. Another walk gives them the lead. Affeldt looks in and gets the sign from Buster who sets up inside. The pitch is down but over the plate and Taveras chops it to the first base side but Affeldt cuts it off before it can roll out to Panik and sprints to first base to get the out himself! A great job by Jeremy who ends up 30 feet down the line in shallow right field after this play. The Giants escaped a bases loaded jam and now have an opportunity to send everyone home with an incredible story to tell forever and ever.

Travis

Here we go. An inning that will live forever in Giants history is about to begin. Michael Wacha has entered the game to pitch. 2014 was only his 2nd season in the big leagues but he had a lot of experience already. In fact, he was voted MVP of the 2013 NLCS when he beat the Dodgers twice. Now he was asked to be the long man for Matheny in case this game went extras. It’s interesting to note that the last time he pitched was September 26th, 20 days earlier. Now he’s here in the 9th to try and save their season.

Of course the first guy up is Pablo Sandoval and he’s going to line the 4th pitch he sees into right field for a lead off single. Wacha threw a 98 mph fastball to him 2 pitches earlier, but Panda was all over this hanging changeup at 89 and smoked it. Pablo claps his hands as he reaches 1st and shows some love to the dugout. His night is now done as Bochy brings in the more speedy Joaquin Arias. Risky to lose Panda’s bat and defense in a game like this. If you’re not going to steal with Arias and Pence hits into a double play, you may wish you still had Pablo in the game. Sometimes it’s better to wait and see if your guy can make it to 2nd base before pinch running (again, if you’re not going to steal).

Speaking of Pence, he’s up right now and now he’s not as he flies out on the first pitch. Taveras actually makes a nice play on a sinking fly ball to keep Arias at 1st. Now here’s Brandon Belt who’s going to do what baby giraffes do best: walk on 4 legs- er, pitches. Wacha went fastball, changeup, fastball, fastball and missed badly with all of them. Brandon didn’t even need a bat for that plate appearance.

Now the Cards have a big meeting on the mound as the Giants have the winning run on 2nd base with 1 out now. Their bullpen is busy but Matheny elects to leave the 22 year old in there to face Travis Ishikawa.

Ishikawa came up with the Giants in 2006, but played the most games (236!) between 2009-2010 and winning a ring with the club. Then he spent time with Milwaukee, Baltimore, Yankees, and Pittsburgh before reuniting with the Giants in the middle of the 2014 season. He was a grinder. A battler. A guy who deserved a chance to come up huge in a big spot.

So here he is with the run that would win the pennant on 2nd base. All he needs to do is flip one into the outfield and the Giants are the champions of the National League. Wacha from the stretch takes a look at Arias at 2nd and deals. Fastball inside at 96, another pitch not close. That’s 5 in a row since the Panda rap. I imagine Cardinals’ fans everywhere wondering why he’s still in there. The home crowd starts chanting “Let’s go, Giants!” as Wacha comes set. He throws and it’s a fastball inside again, ball 2. Fox cameras shows Panda on the railing of the dugout waving his arms up, trying to get the whole stadium to make some noise as if we needed some motivation. Matheny, on the other hand, seems to have come to peace with the fact that his season is just about to be over and he’s just trying to soak it all in.

Wacha’s at 11 pitches, the last 6 have been balls. If you’re Travis Ishikawa, do you take a strike here or risk swinging and hitting into an inning ending double play, sending this game into extras? 2-0 is quite the hitter’s count. I recall this moment fondly. I was with my dad and 2 family friends in our seats in section 105. We had had those seats since the ballpark opened in 2000 and little did we know that we were about to witness the greatest moment in the history of AT&T Park.

We were all standing in anticipation of a pennant winning hit. I had my GoPro in my hand recording. It was 2-0 to Travis Ishikawa. Wacha had to find the zone here. He comes set, Cruz asking for it to be on the outside corner. Wacha deals a fastball at 96 and the pitch is low, but out over the plate. Travis hammers it.

One second into the flight of the ball we knew the Giants had won. Even if it’s off the wall, Arias scores easily and they’re mobbing Travis out at 2nd base. But this ball hits no wall. It sneaks into the first row JUST over the little red Levi’s sign above the last archway. It’s a walk off, pennant winning, three run home run, and the Giants are going to the World Series!

It’s the Giants’ 3rd home run of the game and the hugest. How Travis remembered to touch all the bases I will never know. It was his “Joe Carter moment”. It was his “Bobby Thomson moment”. He can’t contain himself as he jogs around the bases. Jake Peavy is so pumped that he rushes Travis between 2nd and 3rd, trying to hug him before he’s reached the plate. Travis actively pushes him aside, making sure to touch 3rd base. This cannot be ruined! In fact, 6 Giants players trail behind him as he comes down the 3rd baseline, spiking his helmet, and jumping into a mosh pit around home plate. The crowd is losing their minds and I even drop my camera at this point into the row behind me. For a moment I have to snap myself out of this euphoric fantasy to find it and make sure it’s still recording. It was.

This moment is almost too incredible to be real. How were we so lucky to have been at this game? How were Giants fans so lucky to live through these moments? No way this is real life. If you hated hugging people this was the worst night of your life. Travis may have set the record for “most hugs from other men” in a 3 minute span.

It’s weird. I didn’t cry in the moment, not even close. However, every time I rewatch this I do. I cried writing this. That moment, that game, were once in a lifetime events and I am so fortunate to have witnessed it first hand.

A Great At Bat

This week’s Great At Bat award goes to Michael Morse for his pinch hit AB in the 8th. Pinch hitting may be the toughest task in the sport. You have to sit around all game and then you’re brought in in a huge spot against perhaps the other team’s toughest pitcher. Neshek had a 1.87 ERA and only gave up 4 home runs all year and only 2 of those to right handed hitters. Morse was put in that spot to run into one and tie the game and he actually did it! A more typical move is to pinch hit with a high average guy with some speed instead of going with pure power. But Bochy went with power over average and it paid off.

Odd Stats

Panik’s HR was the Giants first in 243 PA. Then they hit 3 in 23 PA.

Affeldt would come in, throw 3 pitches, and get the W in this game.

There was special meaning for each guy to homer in tonight’s game except for freaking Matt Adams. Tony Cruz’s HR was only his second of the year. Panik’s HR was his 2nd Major League HR. Morse’s was a clutch pinch hit HR to tie the game in the 8th. Huge for him because of his journeyman career. Travis’ because of the turn his career took. He thought he was going to stop playing baseball after getting DFA’d by Pittsburgh. Then the Giants took a chance on him and now he’ll live forever in Giants history.

This was the Cardinals 6th straight postseason loss in San Francisco.

The last time the Giants hit 3 or more home runs in a game was August 3, 2014 in a 9-0 win over Bartolo and the Mets. They hit 4. Pence 2, Buster 1, Belt 1. Actually, Pence batted lead off that game and went 3-5, 3 R, 4 RBI, 2 HR.

The below video is what I recorded that night, including dropping my camera mid celebration. Enjoy.

Next Blog: 2014 World Series Game 5 – March 6, 2020

While most of you are sitting down to watch or listen to the first Giants game of 2020 spring training, others will be fondly remembering the longest postseason game in baseball history. What can you do in 6 hours and 23 minutes? Drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Fly from SF to D.C. And write this article. It turns out, you can also watch the Giants score 2 runs in that amount of time. I’ll take it if it means winning a playoff game though. But that’s how long NLDS Game 2 lasted in 2014. 6:23 over 18 innings. The Giants used 20 players, the Nats 21. I used 4 pairs of underwear. The list goes on.

The Giants were fresh off winning their first two games of the postseason, the MadBum Masterpiece in Pittsburgh, and a torturous 3-2 Game 1 win over the Nats the night before behind a very animated Jake Peavy.

Tonight the Giants offense was going up against Jordan Zimmerman. Zim was 14-5 in 2014 and was 8-0 with a 2.18 ERA since the All Star Break. He may have been last alphabetically, but first in scariness. He was going against ancient Giants’ starter Tim Hudson, who was 38 in 2014. His age was showing in his numbers as he was 9-13 that year, the first time he ever had a winning percentage under .500. Hudson also carried a 3.57 ERA into a decent hitter’s park in D.C., and a great hitting team. As a fan, I was just hoping for him to keep this game close, no three run doubles, please.

The Nationals Score First

Speaking of doubles, Hudson was holding his own against Zimmerman but let Asdrubal Cabrera hit one over Ishikawa’s head in left field to start the bottom of the 3rd, giving Nats fans a reason to get loud now.

This brings Zimmerman to the plate and he takes a fastball right down the middle for strike 1. To the casual fan, nothing appears odd about that, but, to someone who’s made their entire life revolve around baseball you question why he didn’t drop a bunt down on the first pitch. Is he trying to get Hudson’s pitch count up? Perhaps Matt Williams (#ForeverGiant) didn’t put the bunt on hoping to deke the Giants defense? Zimmerman backs out of the box and looks for the sign from the 3rd base coach. Bunt, he says. So Zim bunts the next pitch foul and now he’s down 0-2. Two pitches later he strikes out by bunting foul. Great job by Huddy to get around him. But now we’re back to the top of the order and it’s Denard Span who grounds out to first on the first pitch of the at bat. A gift from the future Giant.

Cabrera moved to 3rd on the play and the Giants weren’t out of the woods yet because Anthony Rendon is digging in the box. 2014 was only his second year in the big leagues. He hit .287 with 21 big flies and 83 RBI, and actually finished 5th in MVP voting that season. With Jayson Werth hitting behind him, he was getting a lot of pitches to hit. Hudson started him with a ball and Rendon just missed crushing the second pitch, chopping it foul at his feet. A mistake by Hudson he got away with. On the next pitch, Posey sets up way outside and gestures with his glove to keep it low. Hudson deals and it’s right down the middle for Rendon who’s not going to miss two in a row like that. He takes Hudson’s 90 mph fastball just past a diving Crawford into left field for the RBI single. Nats are up 1-0. The fans go crazy waving their white surrender towels and the Nats have their first lead of the series. If Hudson got Rendon out, the Giants would have won this game in 9 innings. But Rendon had to do Rendon things and kept everyone around for 5 more hours. Hudson would then get Werth to fly out and that was that.

The Giants Tie It Up

Into the 9th we go. The Giants are doing their famous “let’s get 3 hits today” thing and Zimmerman is still out there sitting at only 88 pitches. He’s been extremely efficient. The most pitches he threw to one batter tonight was 7 and it was to Tim Hudson in the top of the 6th believe it or not.

So here’s Zimmerman in the 9th and he’s facing Forever Giant Matt Duffy who’s pinch hitting for Javier Lopez. To this point Zim’s retired 18 consecutive Giants, and you can make it 19 as Duffy strikes out on 4 pitches. Never had a chance. Nats are 2 outs away from winning this game now and here’s Gregor Blanco who’s hacking on the first pitch, fouling it off trying to make something happen. The 0-1 is a 94 mph fastball right through Blanco and it’s quickly 0-2. Blanco makes contact on the 3rd pitch and he hits a lazy flyball to CF for out number 2. Zimmerman’s making this look too easy as he reaches 95 pitches. He’s on track to throw the top 5 fewest pitches in a postseason complete game shutout since 1990. Maddux threw a 95 pitch CG SO in 1995 and John Smoltz (who’s calling this game with Vasgersian) threw 103 pitches in a CG SO in 1997.

The last hope for the Giants now rests on rookie and Forever Giant Joe Panik. Panik takes a heater outside for ball 1. That didn’t miss by much and Nats fans don’t like it. The next pitch is even closer and it’s called a ball! Home plate umpire Vic Carapazza just squeezed Zim on two close pitches in a row when he’s been cruising. The feeling of this game has suddenly changed. Zimmerman looks mad out there now. Panik will take it as he’s 0-3 in this game. Zimmerman just grooves the 2-0 to Panik and he launches a ball foul into the 2nd deck down the right field line. A remarkable foul ball as he missed tying the game by about 30 feet. Everyone held their breath while that ball was in the air. Smoltz and Vasgersian were speechless as they didn’t even call the play. Anyway, it’s a strike and the Giants are down to their final out. Zim overthrows the 2-1 and it’s way high for an easy take, 3-1 now. Panik’s in a great spot now. The 100th pitch of the ballgame is JUST off the outside again and Panik takes the walk. Zimmerman can’t believe it and it’s the first walk of the night for him.

FOX cameras then focus on manager Matt Williams as he decides to take Zim out. Little did he know as he took the long walk to the mound that he was making one of the big decisions that would lead to him being fired after the next season. Zimmerman gives up the ball and walks off the mound to a standing ovation. But Panik did his job. He got Zimmerman out of there and avoided being the 21st guy in a row to make an out.

Enter Drew Storen. Storen was not the Nats closer in 2014 but he did have 11 saves that year. The scariest thing about him was his microscopic 1.12 ERA in 56.1 IP. Since August 24th, he was 10/10 in save opportunities and hadn’t allowed a single run. Opponents were batting .196 off him but none of those guys were Buster Posey. Buster gets in the box, probably surprised to be in this situation, and looks very hitterish. You gotta think Matt Williams did him a favor here as now Buster can sit on a fastball. With a new pitcher coming into the game in a big situation like this, you have to think he’s trying to get in the zone on the first pitch. No one had any idea what Zimmerman was going to throw.

Well, Storen’s first pitch is a 95 mph fastball and Posey flips it into center field for a base hit. Panik takes a big turn but stops at 2nd and now the Giants have a guy in scoring position for the first time since the top of the 3rd and brings World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval to the plate. As he’s a free swinger and a bad ball hitter, what do you throw him right here? You have to beat him with stuff. Just like everyone else, Pablo was 0-3 in this game and was on the verge of ending his 12 game postseason hitting streak. Storen’s first pitch to him is fouled off at 92 mph. Looked like a 2 seamer with movement running away. A big hack by the Panda, 0-1.

Nats’ fans are now looking extremely tense, performing a 180 degree turn of emotion from 2 batters earlier. Panda digs back into the box, ready to let it fly. Storen deals. It’s a fastball at 94 low and away and Panda goes down to get it, lining it down the left field line JUST fair and into the corner! Panik scores easily to tie it as Harper (playing LF, yes) picks it up in the corner. He sidearms it back in as Flannery sends Buster to the plate. Short stop Ian Desmond’s throw one hops Wilson Ramos who makes a nice pick and tags Buster on the hip as he attempts to slide past him. Buster’s called out but he’s vehemently waving his arms like he’s safe as he gets up from the ground.

For now the game is tied at 1 but Bruce Bochy is coming out to ask for a replay. The umpires would look at it and after several minutes they call Buster out. But the Giants did the unthinkable. They got Zimmerman out of there and tied this game. Zimmerman’s final line: 8.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 6 SO. Storen: 3 pitches, 2 hits, 1 blown save.

No Man’s Land

Sergio Romo would get the Giants through the bottom of the 9th unscathed on 12 pitches and then we entered the abyss. Over the next 8 innings neither team would score. The Giants made it interesting a couple times. In the top of the 11th Juan Perez worked at 4 pitch walk to lead off the inning. Blanco would bunt him over (on the first pitch), But Panik would pop out and Panda struck out after an intentional walk to Buster.

Yusmeiro Petit would come in in the 12th and immediately have a stressful inning. Desmond would walk on 4 pitches, Harper just missed hitting a walk off 2 run homer as he hit it to almost deepest center field. On the play, Desmond would tag and reach 2nd base. A rare tag up from 1st base and it makes it a productive out from Harper. Petit would strike out Ramos on 6 pitches for out number 2. Then a familiar face digs into the box. Why, it’s Nate Schierholtz who Bochy elects to intentionally walk. Sorry, Nate. Not tonight. This brings up Danny Espinosa. The first pitch to him is low for ball 1. 18 pitches for Petit in this inning now. He gets Espinosa to swing through the next pitch and on the 3rd pitch of the AB, Espinosa hits a soft liner right at Craw who catches it at his knees for the final out.

After that the Nats would not threaten again. Petit would throw 6 innings and give up 1 hit while striking out 7. An incredible outing by Yusmeiro who played a huge part of this game. He almost threw as many innings as Hudson did (7.1)!

The innings would roll by as pitching started to take over. Neither team looked like they wanted to win this game anymore. I’m a fairly superstitious fan, especially in the postseason. Once I sit down, I can’t move anything or change the way I’m sitting, or as it turns out, turn any lights on. This game started at 2:38pm on a lovely Saturday afternoon. By the time we reached the top of the 18th inning, it was about 8:30 at night and dark out. So here I was on the same part of the couch sitting in pitch black as Brandon Belt dug into the box.

Belt only played in 61 games for San Francisco in 2014 partially due to breaking his thumb in a game in May against LA. But in those 61 games he hit 12 homers, on pace for 32! So here he was in the 18th inning of a postseason game. He’s 0-6 and due. Tanner Roark is now in for the Nats. He came in in the top of the 17th and got Buster, Panda, and Pence in order. He starts Belt with a 92 mph fastball right there for strike 1. The next pitch is another 92 mph fastball on the inside corner, strike 2. Two pitches, two strikes and the baby giraffe is in trouble. However, Brandon’s middle name is “full count” and he’s about to live up to it. The 0-2 is a curveball way in the dirt, an easy take. On the 1-2 Belt fouls it off Ramos’ left forearm and he’s in pain. Tough game behind the plate for a big league catcher. The next 1-2 is a fastball outside and the crowd groans, impatient for their next turn at bat. Roark is working quickly to literally everyone’s pleasure. The 2-2 is a high fastball that Belt fouls off. The 7th pitch of the at bat is 94 mph that must have missed away but it was way too close to take. Somehow it’s a ball and it’s a full count to Brandon. The outside corner to lefties has been called a ball a lot this game and now Roark joins a long list of guys who can’t believe it. Belt was down 0-2 quickly and has somehow squeezed 5 more pitches out of Tanner. Now he’s got him right where he wants him. On the 8th pitch of the at bat, Ramos sets up outside asking for another heater. But Roark’s pitch drifts back towards Belt and the fat part of the plate. The baby giraffe hammers it and drops his bat in typical Brandon fashion.

Jayson Werth gives it a look but it’s 4 rows deep in the second deck. A mammoth blast for Belt at 11:35pm local time. What a great at bat from the 1st baseman and it’s 2-1 Giants. No one’s happier than Tim Hudson (who threw the first pitch of this game 6+ hours ago), who’s pumping his fist up on the fence of the dugout. After a very modest high five to Crawford, Belt is mobbed by the dugout, the greatest moment of his career so far and the best 1-7 night he’ll ever have.

A Great At Bat

No one had a better at bat than Brandon Belt in the 18th. Not only was it a go ahead home run on an 8 pitch AB, but he had to grind for it putting up 6 hitless at bats before it. Brandon Belt saw 28 pitches overall and hit the game winning HR on the last one he saw.

Odd Stats

This was the longest game in postseason history.

The Giants comeback allowed them to win their 10th consecutive postseason game, an NL record. It was also their 6th consecutive postseason road win, also an NL record.

Belt’s HR was his 2nd career postseason HR. Number 1 was 2012 NLCS Game 7.

There were 485 pitches thrown and only 17 hits recorded.

Hunter Strickland closed the game in the 18th but it took 29 pitches for him to do it. Petit threw 29 pitches over his last 2.2 innings.

Next Blog: 2014 NLCS Game 5 – February 28, 2020

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