Game Wrap 2014 World Series Game 7: Giants 3 Royals 2. Giants are World Series Champions!

Well, Madison Bumgarner did not pitch the first 5 inning of this game or even the first 3, but he did pitch the last 5 shutting down the Royals offense once again to lead the Giants to their 3'rd World Series Championship in 5 seasons.  Key Lines:

Blanco, Panik, Posey- 0 for 12.  If you had told me the first 3 batters in the lineup would go a combined 0 for 12, I would probably have told you the Giants would surely lose.  Panik made the defensive play of the game, though, to take away a basehit up the middle from Eric Hosmer and make a glove flip to Crawford to start a DP in the 3'rd inning.  Blanco came very close to being the goat when he misplayed what should have been a single for Alex Gordon into a 2 base error that left Gordon at 3B with 2 outs in the 9'th inning.  For a second there, I actually thought Gordon would take it all the way around and score the tying run right there.  A heartstopping moment and Blanco has been so good on defense all series.  Brought back nightmares of Jose Cruz Jr!

Pablo Sandoval- 3 for 4, HBP.  BA= .429.  Sandoval just kept pounding out the hits.  Clearly Pabs was intentionally swinging for basehits rather than power all series and it paid off big time in this game with a couple of runs scored.

Hunter Pence-  2 for 4.  BA= .444.  Pence also seemed to suppress his power urges this series and broke out of his slump by peppering the field with singles.

Brandon Belt- 2 for 4.  BA= .308.  No dingers and no Runs or RBI's but Belt had productive outs and kept the line moving for others to score and drive in runs.  Nice game for The Belter.

Michael Morse- 1 for 3.  BA= .250.  Giants secret weapon was Morse at DH.  Perfect fit!

Brandon Crawford- 0 for 3, SF.  BA= .308.  Crawford hitting 8'th is like magic.  Maybe the best #8 hitter in baseball!

Juan Perez- 0 for 3.  BA= .250.  Perez did not get any hits, but made a nice catch on a slicing liner down the LF line that I am not sure if Ishikawa would have had.  I know the other members of my family who were watching did not think Ishikawa would have had it.

Tim Hudson- 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 6.14.  Huddy did not have it.  Very poor command, pitches up the zone.  Bochy might have waited too long to get him, but the 2 run lead gave him some rope.  Personally, if Bummy was able to go multiple innings, I would have started him, but it sure worked out in the end.

Jeremy Affeldt- 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 0.00.  Every contract Affledt has signed, people have complained about him being overpaid, but I'll say it right now.  Without Affledt, the Giants do not win 1 World Series in the last 5 years let alone 3!  Another clutch, shutdown performance by the accident prone dude.

Madison Bumgarner- 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 0.43.  Man!  The big guy just put the team on his back and carried it across the finish line.  Once he got rolling, you knew he was going to finish it!  What a series by a truly special talent.  And look who is the toast of Major League Baseball now!  Clayton who?  And how many Best Pitchers in Baseball have the Giants left drowning in their wake over these 3 postseason runs?  Let's see, Doc Halliday, Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander, Kershaw…. am I missing anybody?  Anyway, once again, it was an historic Series and postseason for Madison Bumgarner.

Chevy Salesman- Man, when that Chevy salesman  went into his sales pitch while trying to present Bummy with the MVP car, I though Bud Selig was going to walk over and grab him by the throat!  Oh man!  Stankeye, body language, eye rolling, head rolling, face palming, Selig did it all within about a 90 second time frame!  LOL!

KC Royals-  Royals were a very worthy and classy opponent.  Another organization that has taken a lot of guff from baseball oriented internet based media, they played with class, heart, skill and enthusiasm.  They may not have come in with the reputations of the Texas Rangers in 2010 or Detroit Tigers in 2012, but they played a whole lot better.  They have a ton of young talent on that team. They will be good in the coming years even if James Shields moves on to greener pastures.

The Win give the Giants 4 wins in the best of 7 series.  They are the World Series Champions for the 3 third time in 5 season.  I went back through the full list of WS champions in history and was only able to find 7 teams that have won as many in such a short time frame:

Philly A's- 3 times in 4 seasons 1910-13.

Red Sox- 3 times in 4 seasons 1915-18.

Yankees- 4 straight 1936-39 and 5 of 6 1936-41.

Cardinals- 3 of 5 1942-46.

Yankees- 5 straight 1949-53 and 6 of 7 1947-53.

Oakland A's- 3 straight 1972-74

Yankees- 3 straight 1998-2000 and 4 of 5 1996-2000.

The only National League Team to match the Giants is the 1942-46 Cardinals.  The Dodgers were next closest with 3 out of 7 1959-1965.

No Big Red Machine. No Toronto Blue Jays.  No Baltimore Orioles of the 60's and 70's.  No Braves of the 90's.

I've seen pushback in some corners against calling this Giants team a dynasty, and I admit it is a subjective term, but if you look at the history of the World Series, the Giants deserve to be counted among the great multiple championship teams in baseball history.