8:07 PM ET, October 29,2014
Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri
Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri
Associated Press
Hunter Pence On World Series Win
Madison Bumgarner punctuated his World Series performance for the ages by pitching the San Francisco Giants to their third championship in five years in a 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.
The big left-hander came out of the bullpen to throw five scoreless innings on two days' rest, saving a Series pushed to the limit. And by winning Game 7 on the road, Bumgarner and the Giants succeeded where no team had in 3½ decades.
More from ESPN.com
How
did the Giants win the World Series? Two words: Madison Bumgarner. His
five-inning shutout effort in relief earned him MVP honors and a secure
place among the Fall Classic greats, Jayson Stark writes. Story
After
taking a tough World Series loss to the Giants in seven games, the
Royals have to confront an offseason with questions about whether they
can repeat as AL champions, Jerry Crasnick writes. Story
Joe
Panik's defensive gem in the bottom of the third inning was a memorable
play in a key spot that helped the Giants in their World
Series-clinching win, Jim Caple writes. Story
A two-out misplay in the ninth almost wrecked it for him.
Bumgarner had retired 14 in a row when Alex Gordon sent a drive to center field. The pitcher pointed his glove in the air, thinking it could be the final out, but the ball fell in front of Gregor Blanco for a single.
Blanco allowed it to skip past him to the wall, and left fielder Juan Perez kicked the ball before throwing to shortstop Brandon Crawford in short left, holding Gordon at third.
"When it got by him, I had a smile on my face. I thought maybe I could score, but he got to it quickly enough," Gordon said. "I just put my head down and ran, almost fell around second base, was just waiting for (third-base coach Mike Jirschele) to give me the signal. It was a good hold. He had the ball in plenty of time."
From there, Blanco hoped for the best.
"We just need one more out. We got this. Let's do it," he said he thought to himself.
Bumgarner, the Series MVP, retired Salvador Perez on a foulout to third baseman Pablo Sandoval near the Giants' dugout. The 25-year-old ace was immediately embraced by catcher Buster Posey, and the rest of the Giants rushed to the mound to join the victory party.
San Francisco players tossed their gloves high in the air as they ran to the center of the diamond.
"What a warrior he is, and truly incredible what he did throughout the postseason," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Bumgarner. "I just told him I just can't believe what he accomplished through all this. He's such a humble guy, and we rode him pretty good."
Three days after throwing 117 pitches in a four-hit shutout to win Game 5, Bumgarner tossed 68 more and dropped his record-low career Series ERA to a minuscule 0.25. He has allowed one run and 14 hits in five outings covering 36 innings.
Giants Dynasty?
The Giants joined a select group of teams with their third World Series title in five seasons.MLB History
| Team | Occurrences | Last Span |
|---|---|---|
| Yankees | 8 | 1996-2000 |
| Red Sox | 2 | 1915-1918 |
| Giants | 1 | 2010-2014 |
| Oakland Athletics | 1 | 1972-1974 |
| Cardinals | 1 | 1942-1946 |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 1 | 1910-1913 |
| -- ESPN Stats & Information | ||
Bumgarner initially was credited with the win. But nearly an hour after the final out, the official scorers awarded it to Jeremy Affeldt, who was in the game when San Francisco took the lead.
Affeldt pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief in his longest outing since July 2012. He was helped by the first World Series reversal in the era of expanded replay, which gave the Giants a double play on Eric Hosmer's sharp grounder.
Rookie second baseman Joe Panik made a diving stop and flipped to Crawford with his glove for the relay, a key play that prevented a potential Royals rally.
Bumgarner joined Cincinnati's Rawly Eastwick in 1975 as the only pitchers with at least two wins and a save in a World Series, and the 15-out save set a Fall Classic record.
With it all, Bumgarner etched his place in postseason lore among the likes of Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and David Ortiz -- players whose indelible October performances led their teams to titles.
Posey expected Bumgarner to throw three innings, then turn over the game to setup man Sergio Romo and closer Santiago Casilla -- who threw four pitches in the entire Series.
"But he just kept rolling," Posey said. "I mean, it's unbelievable."
Consecutive sacrifice flies by Michael Morse and Crawford put the Giants ahead 2-0 in the second against Jeremy Guthrie, but Tim Hudson gave the lead right back in the bottom half on Gordon's RBI double and Omar Infante's sacrifice fly.
Morse hit a go-ahead single in the fourth on a 99 mph fastball from reliever Kelvin Herrera to break a 2-all tie, and the Giants eked out a battle of bullpens on a night when both starting pitchers made unusually quick exits.
The Giants were dubbed a "Band of Misfits" in 2010 when they beat Texas to win the franchise's first title since 1954 in New York. Two years later, they swept Detroit for another championship.
Bumgarner's Standout Performance
Madison Bumgarner put up one of the best performances in World Series history in leading the Giants to the title.In A World Series
| Madison Bumgarner | 2014 Giants |
| Sandy Koufax* | 1965 Dodgers |
| Harry Brecheen | 1946 Cardinals |
| Carl Hubbell* | 1933 Giants |
| Waite Hoyt* | 1921 Yankees |
| Christy Mathewson* | 1905 Giants |
| *Hall of Famer | |
| -- ESPN Stats & Information | |
Every other year. It's the closest thing to a baseball dynasty in the 21st century.
Home teams had won nine straight Game 7s in the Series since Pittsburgh's victory at Baltimore in 1979, including the Royals' 11-0 rout of St. Louis in 1985. Teams hosting the first two games had won 23 of the previous 28 titles, including five in a row. And the Giants had lost all four of their previous World Series pushed to the limit.
But before a pumped-up, blue-and-white-clad crowd of 40,535 that hoped noise and passion could lift the small-market Royals to a title that seemed improbable when Kansas City was languishing two games under .500 in mid-July, the Giants won the second all-wild-card World Series, 12 years after losing Game 7 to the Angels in the first.
Hudson and Guthrie combined for 15 outs -- matching the fewest by Game 7 starters. Hudson, at 39, became the oldest Game 7 starter. Guthrie, 35, took the loss.
With his shaggy hair making him look every bit a gunslinger, Bumgarner entered to boos in the bottom of the fifth for his first relief appearance since the 2010 NL playoffs. He coated his long arms with rosin and groomed the pocked-up mound with his spikes.
Bumgarner gave up an opposite-field single to his first batter, Infante, and didn't allow another runner until the ninth. Bumgarner yielded two hits, struck out four and walked none. He pitched 52 2/3 postseason innings, 4 1/3 more than the previous mark set by Schilling for Arizona in 2001, and finished with 270 innings overall, including the regular season.
MadBum became king of SoMa, and from Nob Hill to North Beach, from The Marina to The Mission, San Francisco celebrated another title won by "Kung Fu Panda" and Hunter Pence.
Pence batted .444 in the Series, and Sandoval, a free agent-to-be playing perhaps his last game for the Giants, finished at .429 following a three-hit night. In an era in which pitching and computer-aided defense have supplanted steroids-saturated sluggers, baseball's dominant team established itself in the tech-fueled, boomtown by the Bay.
The Giants, a 20-1 long shot when 2014 odds were first posted a year ago, won their eighth title and third since moving from New York to San Francisco after the 1957 season. They also have won 10 straight postseason rounds, one shy of the record set by the New York Yankees from 1998 to 2001.
Most of it this year was due to Bumgarner.
"He didn't lose a bit of energy. He didn't lose a bit of stuff," injured teammate Matt Cain said. "Sometimes you wonder if he's got a pulse."
THE CORE
Eight players have been on all three Series rosters for the Giants in the past five years: Affeldt, Bumgarner, Casilla, Tim Lincecum, Javier Lopez, Posey, Romo and Sandoval. Cain, a member of the first two title teams, was hurt this October. Before this run, manager John McGraw (1905, '21, '22) was the only Giant with three titles. Bochy became the 10th manager to win three World Series titles -- the other nine all are in the Hall of Fame.
Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press
Photo Wire
KANSAS CITY, MO - OCTOBER 29: Manager Bruce Bochy #15 of the San Francisco Giants stands on the field before Game...
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
Game Information
| Stadium | Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO |
| Attendance | 40,535 (106.9% full) - % is based on regular season capacity |
| Game Time | 3:10 |
| Weather | 55 degrees, clear |
| Wind | 2 mph |
| Umpires | Home Plate - Jeff Nelson, First Base - Eric Cooper, Second Base - Jim Reynolds, Third Base - Ted Barrett |
Research Notes
Dating
back to the 1960 World Series and Bill Mazeroski's walk-off HR, there
have been 21 World Series Game 7's, and 18 of them have been decided by 3
or fewer runs, 9 of them by 1 run.
4 of the last 6 World Series Game 7's have been decided by 1 run,
including tonight.
[+] |
How Madison Bumgarner
Earned a Save in Game 7:
- Bumgarner threw 37 of his 68 pitches in the upper third of the zone or
higher (54 percent), his highest percentage in 165 career appearances
(regular season and postseason). He recorded 11 of his 15 outs and nine
of his 12 swings and misses in that location.
- Bumgarner threw 41 pitches out of the strike zone and the Royals
chased 18 of them (44 percent), his highest percentage in 14 career
postseason appearances. Of the 15 outs he recorded in Game 7, more of
them came on pitches out of the zone (8) than in the zone (7), including
all four strikeouts.
- Bumgarner started only 8 of 17 hitters with a first-pitch strike (47
percent), by far his lowest percentage this postseason. But he would
recover, throwing 81 percent strikes after falling behind 1-0. He didn't
go to a single 3-ball count to 17 hitters, his only appearance without a
3-ball count this season.
|
This
is the 1st time since 1962 that a team won the World Series in a Game 7
with the game-tying run on 3rd base...
That year, Willie Mays doubled Matty Alou to 3rd base with 2 outs before
Willie McCovey lined out to 2nd base to end it and the Giants lost to
the Yankees.
|
With his five innings in relief in Game 7 Wednesday, Madison Bumgarner finished the 2014 postseason with the most innings any pitcher has ever thrown in a single postseason.
[+] |
Madison Bumgarner is the first pitcher with 2 wins as a starter and a save in a postseason series since saves became an official stat in 1969.
|
Madison Bumgarner's 5-inning save is the longest in World Series history (saves became official in 1969)...
Steve Howe went 3 2/3 for a save in the Game 6 clincher in 1981 for the Dodgers.
|
From Elias: The Game 7 matchup between Jeremy Guthrie and Tim Hudson
would be the oldest pitching matchup in a decisive game in World Series
history. Guthrie is 35 and Hudson is 39, which also marks the 1st time 2
pitchers at least 35 will square off in a decisive game.
[+] |
From Elias: With Madison Bumgarner
slated to potentially pitch in relief in Game 7 tonight...
Here is a list of starting pitchers to make a World Series start of 7
innings or more, then come back to pitch in Game 7 of the same series on
2 or fewer days of rest in the Divisional era (1969).
It has not happened since 2001 for the Diamondbacks when they did it
TWICE in the series against the Yankees...and that worked out well.
[+] |
From Elias:
[+] |
The last time the Royals won the World Series they trailed 3-2 after Game 5, only to come back and win Games 6 and 7 at home.
The Royals' vaunted bullpen showed its might again as K.C. grabbed a 2-1 lead in the World Series. 