It might be safe to say that the Giants are coming close to being a dynasty. For the 3rd time in the past five seasons, and for the eight time in the modern era,, the San Francisco Giants are the champions of the baseball world. This 8th title came after knocking off the Kansas City Royals in a very hard fought seven game series. For a team that has been in existence since 1883 as the New York Gothams, then moving to California in 1958 are putting there stamp on the game as one of the great teams, and franchises, at this moment.
In games one and two, we saw seven runs get scored in blowouts, with the Giants taking game one and the Royals answering back in game two. When the scene shifted to San Francisco, the Royals played a typical Royals game, pulling out a 3-2 victory. That woke up the Giants, who responded with a blowout 11-4 victory. Then they followed that up to a 5-0 win, thanks to Madison Bumgarner (more on him in a little bit). Kansas City dominated at home with the 10-0 win to force the 7th game. Then the Giants pulled out the nail bitter in the last game for the 3-2 win in the series clincher. This was as close a series as many people thought it would be, Kansas City put up a great fight. Lets not take anything away from their performance, not only in this series but in this playoffs as a whole. Kansas City won 8 straight games to start the playoffs, before losing the opener to the Giants.
Then in this series, Billy Butler, Omar Infante, Salvador Perez and Alex Escobar had good averages in the seven games, each hitting over 300 for the entire series. Sure the Royals played small ball during this series, which was a staple of theirs throughout the entire playoffs, but in the world series, some of the clutch hitting wasn't there as prominent as it was during the opening rounds. Same thing can be said too for their clutch bullpen and defense.
There were times where the Royals showed they belonged, but at the same time they were outplayed by the Giants. I know it didn't end the way the Royals wanted to but the fact that they went to game seven of the fall classic says a lot. Also consider the fact that on July 22nd, the Royals were 49-50, a game under 500, and look where they finished. It would have been so much sweeter had it resulted in a championship, but still it speaks volumes for how good a ball club this team really was this season. It's really nothing to be ashamed of.
No team in the 2014 postseason had a worse record in the regular season, and the Giants benefited from playing in the same division as the Diamondbacks and Rockies, the teams with the worst and second-worst records in the sport. It always seems like the Giants find a way to do this in even number years, when nobody seems to give them a chance, they find a way to do what needs to get done to bring home a championship.
Clutch hitting and defense helped the Giants bigtime in this series. Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandaval both hit over .400 in the series, chiming in with 12 hits each during the course of the series. You can also throw in the eight hits from Brandon Belt as well, providing sparks for the Giants as well. While the Giants offense had a few major impact players, there's no doubt about that. There is one guy however, who had a HUGE impact on this series.
Of course, I'm talking about the man who walked away with the World Series MVP, one Mr. Madison Bumgarner. This guy was flat out lights out, not only in the World Series, but in the entire playoffs as well. In total, during this playoff run, Bumgarner started 6 games, ending with a 4-1 record and 1 save. He had a total postseason ERA of 0.65 in 52.2 innings pitched, to go along with 45 strikeouts. That's pretty damn good. Once the World Series rolled around, Bumgarner was even more lights out, winning two games and picking up the save in game seven, a five inning save no less. During the series, Bumgarner pitched a total of 21 innings, giving up a total of 9 hits and one run. That's mindblowing. The rest of the pitching staff threw a combined 36.5 innings. That's insane.
It was one of the greatest pitching performances that anybody has put out. The five inning save can be added to a list of some pretty memorable Game 7 performances, which also includes shutouts by the Minnesota Twins’ Jack Morris in 1991 and the Royals’ Bret Saberhagen in 1985. (Bumgarner was initially credited with the win, but the official scorer changed it to a save about 45 minutes after the game and gave the win to relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt). Yeah I'd say you can put it up there with some of the great game seven's ever. When speaking of dominating pitchers in World Series history, you can, in all likelyhood, add Bumgarner to some of the greats in this game. You can throw this years World Series pitching performances with the likes of Christy Mathewson, threw complete-game shutouts in Games 1, 3 and 5 of the 1903 World Series, for example. And Curt Schilling dominated in 2001, as did Orel Hershiser in 1988, as did Sandy Koufax in 1964.
So hats off to the San Francisco Giants for capturing their 8th title ever and 3rd in the last five years!
In games one and two, we saw seven runs get scored in blowouts, with the Giants taking game one and the Royals answering back in game two. When the scene shifted to San Francisco, the Royals played a typical Royals game, pulling out a 3-2 victory. That woke up the Giants, who responded with a blowout 11-4 victory. Then they followed that up to a 5-0 win, thanks to Madison Bumgarner (more on him in a little bit). Kansas City dominated at home with the 10-0 win to force the 7th game. Then the Giants pulled out the nail bitter in the last game for the 3-2 win in the series clincher. This was as close a series as many people thought it would be, Kansas City put up a great fight. Lets not take anything away from their performance, not only in this series but in this playoffs as a whole. Kansas City won 8 straight games to start the playoffs, before losing the opener to the Giants.
Then in this series, Billy Butler, Omar Infante, Salvador Perez and Alex Escobar had good averages in the seven games, each hitting over 300 for the entire series. Sure the Royals played small ball during this series, which was a staple of theirs throughout the entire playoffs, but in the world series, some of the clutch hitting wasn't there as prominent as it was during the opening rounds. Same thing can be said too for their clutch bullpen and defense.
There were times where the Royals showed they belonged, but at the same time they were outplayed by the Giants. I know it didn't end the way the Royals wanted to but the fact that they went to game seven of the fall classic says a lot. Also consider the fact that on July 22nd, the Royals were 49-50, a game under 500, and look where they finished. It would have been so much sweeter had it resulted in a championship, but still it speaks volumes for how good a ball club this team really was this season. It's really nothing to be ashamed of.
No team in the 2014 postseason had a worse record in the regular season, and the Giants benefited from playing in the same division as the Diamondbacks and Rockies, the teams with the worst and second-worst records in the sport. It always seems like the Giants find a way to do this in even number years, when nobody seems to give them a chance, they find a way to do what needs to get done to bring home a championship.
Clutch hitting and defense helped the Giants bigtime in this series. Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandaval both hit over .400 in the series, chiming in with 12 hits each during the course of the series. You can also throw in the eight hits from Brandon Belt as well, providing sparks for the Giants as well. While the Giants offense had a few major impact players, there's no doubt about that. There is one guy however, who had a HUGE impact on this series.
It was one of the greatest pitching performances that anybody has put out. The five inning save can be added to a list of some pretty memorable Game 7 performances, which also includes shutouts by the Minnesota Twins’ Jack Morris in 1991 and the Royals’ Bret Saberhagen in 1985. (Bumgarner was initially credited with the win, but the official scorer changed it to a save about 45 minutes after the game and gave the win to relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt). Yeah I'd say you can put it up there with some of the great game seven's ever. When speaking of dominating pitchers in World Series history, you can, in all likelyhood, add Bumgarner to some of the greats in this game. You can throw this years World Series pitching performances with the likes of Christy Mathewson, threw complete-game shutouts in Games 1, 3 and 5 of the 1903 World Series, for example. And Curt Schilling dominated in 2001, as did Orel Hershiser in 1988, as did Sandy Koufax in 1964.
So hats off to the San Francisco Giants for capturing their 8th title ever and 3rd in the last five years!
No comments:
Post a Comment