Madison Bumgarner pitched an historically great game and the Giants scored some runs, but mostly Madison Bumgarner pitched an historically great game! Key Lines:
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4. BA= .364. Before the game, in response to a question, Pablo Sandoval stated, "we don't care about home runs!" As long as you are getting hits and keeping the line moving, Pablo, that's OK. The hot trend in MLB that Sabers are just starting to wake up to is contact. Don't let yourself get too deep into a count. Avoid two strike counts(well, except for Hunter Pence). Get more hits!
Hunter Pence- 2 for 4. BA= .474. Pence hit a 3'rd ball about as hard as you can hit it. It was caught in deep right-centerfield by Lorenzo Cain, whose leg did not appear to be bothering him.
Juan Perez- 1 for 1, 2B. BA= .250. Juan Perez knew Oscar Taveras and was in tears in the dugout during the game. He came up in the 8'th inning with 2 runners on base and provided the backbreaker with a drive off the fearsome Wade Davis that hit a few millimeters below the Ian Kinsler mark on the CF wall. Little Juan scored on Crawford's hit and a tense ballgame was suddenly an easy win for the Giants. He also made a catch of a drive off the bat of Salvador Perez look easy when it wasn't.
BTW, Travis Ishikawa did not figure in the scoring, but went 2 for 3. Who do you start in LF for Game 6?
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4. BA= .333. I've talked about the unique skills Crawford has developed for hitting 8'th. In this game, he and the Giants may have benefitted from the Royals having a little too much respect for Bummy's hitting and not enough respect for Crawford, although Crawford made productive contact with pitches that were out of the zone. Sometimes you have to do that when you are hitting 8'th with runners on base.
Madison Bumgarner- 9 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 0.56. OK team! Listen up here! We are witnessing one of the great postseason pitchers of all time, and he pitches for the team we root for! Where do I start? This was the first time in WS history that a pitcher allowed no walks with at least 8 K's in a complete game shutout, not Koufax, Gibson, Whitey Ford, not even Don Larsen's Perfect Game! Bummy's career WS ERA now stands at 0.29 in 4 starts, best in history for at least 3 starts and 30 IP, topping Jack Billingham of the Big Red Machine. His career postseason record stands at 7-3, 2.27, 83.1 IP, 15 BB, 73 K's. When I think of great postseason starting pitchers, I think of Whitey Ford, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson. I'm adding Madison Bumgarner to tha list!
The Win put the Giants up 3 games to 2 in the best of 7 series. The Series now moves back to Kansas City for Game 6 and Game 7 if needed. Jake Peavy and Yordano Ventura face off in a rematch of Game 2 in Game 6.
Around the league: Devastating news for the St Louis Cardinals and baseball fans everywhere who love to see great talent. Oscar Taveras, the ultra-talented rookie OF for the Cardinals was killed in an auto accident in the Dominican Republic along with his girlfriend. You may remember Taveras hitting a HR against the Giants in his first MLB AB this season as well as a pinch hit HR in the NLCS. He had his struggles as a rook, but you could see the enormous talent was there. Just very sad news and a huge loss for baseball and the world.
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when the first tweets came out about tavares' death, i thought it had to be a hoax
ReplyDeletesuch a terrible tragedy
as travis misplayed another ball, and with the dh in play, i gotta think bochy will be leaning on letting perez start game 6
maddy's performance was otherworldly....i wonder how olbermann will find a way to demean it....like he did the travis walkoff....which the hof found to be special enough to request that the bat be sent to take its place right next to thompson's
and now that the giants beat the hd of the hdh, wonder what is going through yost's mind about his script
series is far from over, but i think the giants have done enough to show the world that they belong there
bacci
need to add this. i have ridden belt since his initial callup....but his bunt single to beat the shift was masterful
ReplyDeletebacci
Ummmm, a little crow tastes good with World Series sauce, eh Bacci.
DeleteWhat a beautiful game. MadBum is an artist, spinning in cutters and sliders, dropping the curve and pounding the FB in. When hitters are trying their best and walk away shaking their heads it's mastery in action. Beautiful, just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThink Matt Williams was watching how Bochy let MadBum finish out a game?
Surprised Yost showed his bullpen aces. Giants gained confidence scoring against 98+ heat.
Got a feeling the Giants seeing Yordano the second time around will hit him. Peavy will be good for 5.
Contact hitting - that's an ancient concept, even if undervalued these days.
ReplyDeleteOther ancient concepts - chemistry and leadership.
Linked from CSB Bay Area, a Yahoo article about Juan Perez mentioned Buster telling Juan to shorten up his swing against Davis, as well as Muelens telling him to pull the ball. Adding to my earlier comments about communicating between Pence and Blanco, Flannery and Crawford, that's chemistry. I am sure teams do it to varying degrees, but I imagine teams with selfish players don't talk that much and thus, chemistry is important.
That swing Perez put on Davis was noticeably short and direct to the ball. Maybe he should do that against all pitchers? Kid is hot right now. Personally, I'd like to see him in LF for game 6 for his D if nothing else, but his O is no longer a liability.
DeleteAnd to think I wanted to dump him for Brownie about 3 weeks ago. Shows how much I know.
Doc, you're not always right, but often enough...more often than me.
DeleteAnd I say that about Sabean too...Wheeler trade was a mistake. OK, OK, time to move on.
0.29...History indeed! God was that sooooooooo good to see from way over here in Tampa! And sharing the moment with my brother in LoCal and my son in Seattle via the interwebz. Woooohooooo!
ReplyDeleteAnd Crawford delivering, Federal Way's Finest grinding, Pence and Panda pouncing, Blanco OBPing, Baby Giraffe bunting (a la a certain thong-wearing reclamation project some four years ago), and old Melonhead's Master Manipulating all colorful scenes in the tapestry that is Giants Baseball 2014!!!!
Finally, the most poignant piece for me was Perez channeling his deep sorrow in losing his friend to a positive salute to Oscar Taveras. I have lost too many friends over the past 12 years - it was a somber, professional yet uplifting tribute Juan gave to his amigo. I'm with you, he has earned the start.
I think Peavy atones for his hiccup in Game 2. And like bacci alluded to above, I think that the G-Men are catching up to the fire ballers (just like they did against the Reds Brigade and the Cards Closers back in 2012)!
I think we win it one more time, right on schedule. If by some case it doesn't, I think that this Series reaches a similar historic place as the BoSox-Red Machine Series of 1975...even if no one is watching it...I will be.
And I'll read about it afterwards here and at Shankbone's site. In the immortal words of Joe Walsh: "Life's Been Good To Me So Far!"
NWGiantsFan
DtF!!!
Very sad news about Taveras. Obviously you love to see the Giants in the World Series but you have to feel for his family because if the Cardinals advanced he would probably still be alive. I think that is just another thing to fight for tomorrow night. Lets win it for Oscar and all of the haters. I have heard so many talk show hosts and ex-players say Royals in 5 or Royals in 6. Lets make them believe whenever this core of players get in the playoffs we can go all the way. Whether we will 92 games (2010), 94 games (2012) or 88 games in (2014).
ReplyDeleteIncredibly shocking and sad to hear about Taveras. Not that the talent of the player determines the level of the sadness, but it's truly heartbreaking to see a kid his age, just starting to realize his dream, gone... I feel for the family and the entire Cardinals' organization. RIP Oscar.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Giants, and more specifically Bumgarner. 39 starts this year. Over 260 IP. And he still looks like he could pitch into December! You can only hope this kind of workload doesn't have lasting effects down the road, but right now, this guy is hands down the most BIG GAME pitcher in all of baseball!
This may sound funny to the folks around here, but I had no idea what a prospect was until I discovered MadBum's name in a fan post back in 2008. All of a sudden, I'm listening to Augusta games on internet radio feeds every time Bumgarner pitches. To think, that was only 6 years ago. He's 25, has his team on the verge of a 3rd title, and owns some of the greatest World Series numbers in MLB history. Unbelievable!
I agree that one person's life is not of more value than another's, but baseball desperately needs the kind of players Oscar Taveras had a good chance of becoming. Losing that is a tremendous loss for baseball and baseball fans.
Deletetavares story gets worse
Deletei recalled them mentioning during the lcs that the reason tavares lost his spot was due to lack of conditioning (where have we heard that before)
so i was thinking to myself, why was he in the dr?
seems he was given 2 weeks of r&r before he was to report to the cards st facilities in preparation for winter ball....just totally blows
in more positive news, seems no one cares about the mlb unwritten rules about making announcements before the ws has completed
our olf friend, mike aldrete is joining the a's as their new bench coach....happy for him
and the bums lost their head of scouting to the friars....so much for the whole "looking to build from within" meme they have been spreading.....good news for the entire west
oh, and buzz is that before this decade is out, fox will totally transition all the post, including the ws to cable
good job bud....your legacy will continue to live on
bacci