Game Wrap 8/26/2014 Giants 3 Rockies 0

Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey stood in the gap last night and led the Giants to an emphatic win that came oh so close to making baseball history.  Key Lines:

Gregor Blanco- 0 for 3.  BA= .248.  Nothing on offense here, but the second batter of the game, Drew Stubbs, hit a drive to the wall in LF that Blanco turned into an out, that I very much doubt Michael Morse would have made a play on.  That ball bounces off the wall and it's a whole different ballgame right off the bat, so to speak.

Hunter Pence- 1 for 2, 2 BB.  BA= .286.  Pence's contribution was not as dramatic as Bumgarner's or Posey's but he stood in the gap along with them getting on base 3 times out of the 2-hole.

Buster Posey- 2 for 4, 2 HR(17).  BA= .288.  In the previous game, Buster got rung up on a pitch that was not close to the strike zone, apparently as payback to Jake Peavy for an incident earlier in the game.  Tonight Buster came back and made a statement of his own, showing that umpire how his fit of anger was not harmless and may well have changed the outcome of the game.  In addition, Buster made a statement to his teammates about his leadership and accountability for the success of the team.  Just a star performance by a star of the team.

Madison Bumgarner- 9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 13 K's.  ERA= 3.02.  Talk about being a stopper!  Bummy took a perfect game into the 8'th inning.  The pitch Morneau hit for a leadoff double was a good pitch that he had to reach for, but managed to drop the bathead on the ball and poke it down the RF line.  In retrospect, that was probably not the best pitch Bummy could have thrown in that situation and it did look like a location mistake with an offspeed pitch that probably should have gone to the outside corner.  On to happier topics, Bumgarner has found a new weapon, the elevated fastball and he is dominating with it!  And what a beast Bumgarner is anyway!  Not only is he not wilting in the dog days, he has found a foot or two on the FB hitting 94 on the high hard one with regularity late in the game last night.  His 13 K's came on top of 12 from his previous game.  He now has pitched 5 QS's in a row with 49 K's against just 2 BB's in 40 IP.   He's had 2 CG's in that 5 game span with double digit K's 3 times.  Right now, Madison Bumgarner deserves to be in the conversation about who is the best pitcher in baseball, and he's still getting better!

The Dodgers also won, so the Giants remain 5 games behind them in the NL West.  The Braves lost, so the Giants now have a 1.5 game lead for the second Wild Card playoff berth.

Tim Hudson tries to build on this game tonight facing LHP Franklin Morales.