Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Game Wrap 2016 NL Wild Card Game: Giants 3 Mets 0

The Legend of Madison Bumgarner and Giants Even Year Magic went to a new level with one of the most dramatic games and finishes of this unbelievable 7 year run.  Bumgarner went mano-a-mano with Noah Syndergaard with Syndergaard appearing to be the more dominant pitcher, but Bumgarner matching him goose egg for goose egg.  Then Syndergaard dropped out after 7 innings and Bumgarner just kept on going to serve as his own closer after Conor Gillaspie hit a 3-run HR off Jeurys Familia in the top of the 9'th inning.  Key Lines:

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 3, BB.  Crawford opened the 9'th with a double to left-CF off Familia.  

Conor Gillaspie- 2 for 4, HR.  Gillaspie was the only player in the game with more than 1 hit.  When he came up with runners at first and second and 1 out in the 9'th, I thought there was a good chance he would get a hit and possibly drive in the first run of the game, but I never dreamed he would hit it out.  Yet another Giants draft pick and prospect who gets traded or released only to come back a hero years later.  What a story!  Ha! And what about Madison Bumgarner calmly walking up to him after he got back to the dugout and saying, "Conor, I appreciate the hell out of that!"  LOL Madison Bumgarner!

Madison Bumgarner- 9 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K's.   So, Madison Bumgarner is suddenly a curveball pitcher?  I don't think I've ever seen him throw that many in one game before.  Not that he didn't also have his FB/Cutter combo, but he was able to keep the Mets off balance by using a pitch they had probably not seen much of before.  Also, the legend just keeps on growing.  What is it?  26 IP over 3 elimination game starts without allowing a run?  

Just an aside, I am not sure Bumgarner didn't intimidate the home plate umpire.  He and the ump had some words somewhere around mid game over the ump's, ahem, creative strike zone.  From that point on, I thought almost all the borderline pitches were called strikes for Bumgarner and almost all balls for the Mets.

Noah Syndergaard- 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 K's.  Ironically, it was Syndergaard who appeared to be the more dominant pitcher through most of the game racking up an impressive strikeout total and allowing just 2 hits.  Maybe the K's ran up the pitch count too much?  Maybe Thor just doesn't have the stamina that Bumgarner has, but his failure to go as deep as Bumgarner just might have been the difference in the game.  Oh, and he also reportedly told someone before the game that he was already looking forward to the Mets-Cubs series.  Uh, maybe next year?

Jeurys Familia- 1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  Familia had 51 Saves in 56 opportunities in the season.  I honestly thought the Giants only chance was to hang on until Reed and Familia were used up.  I think Syndergaard's velocity was a factor in the relative ineffectiveness of Reed and Familia. After seeing Thor's 99 MPH heat all night, Familia's mere 97 looked like batting practice pitches in comparison!

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The Giants are the NL Wild Card Winners for the second time in 3 seasons. They did it on the road both times.  They now move on to the NLDS facing the team with the NL's top W-L record, the Cubs. With 4 SP's who can shut down a good team on any given day, I think the Giants have a great shot at this one.  Remember they only lost the season series 3-4 and 3 of those losses were by 1 run.  But more on that later.

9 comments:

  1. Madison didn't look like he had his best stuff but the Mets helped him out early on to keep his pitch down and he battled like Madison does. And every year, the Giants seem to find a new unsung guy to step up. Connor has been hitting the ball well as of late but agreed, not expecting him to go yard there. Met's looked lost after that hit and the 9th was a breeze. I do like our match ups against the Cubs, especially our SP's. Here's to our even year magic!

    Billy Baseball

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  2. I was listening to the ESPN station here in St. Louis. They were all like the 'winner' of last night's game would be the real loser as they'd have to face the Cubs. I'm not so sure.

    If it weren't for the 2016 meltdown of the bullpen and dropping from mid-70% in hold/save to the mid-50% in save/hold, the Giants win another dozen games because they've got a good rotation and they've got a championship defense. Both of which I think are right up there with the Cubs. And it's not like our offense is so far behind them, either.

    I read somewhere that the Cubs finished #1 in team defense, the Giants #2. Post-All-Star I think their pitching has been (over-all) sharper when it comes to depth of rotation. But Cueto is 3rd and Bumgarner 6th in post-All-Star FIP so it's not like we're scrubs. And Samardzija, who had a mid-season melt-down and had to re-tool his pitches AND fix his tipping-pitches problem (again) has the 6th best FIP this past 30-days (2.20) which is up there with 30-day numbers of Cueto (2.21) and Bumgarner (3.17, 0.00 for the playoffs). And even Matt Moore has been solid, finishing 27th in FIP (last 30 days) at 3.43.

    So I don't concede we're hopelessly over-matched. I do concede the Cubs do have the advantage - homefield, extremely deep across the board in the skill positions and marginally out-class the Giants on offense (#1 to #4 in Team WAR), and, of course, a far, far, far better bullpen.

    So I think it'd be a tough fight to over-come the Cubs. And the GIants could get swept. But I don't concede that it's hopeless as I think we're just as strong in pitching and defense and our offense isn't that far behind.

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    1. Edit. Sorry, 4th over-all WAR not 4th offensive WAR. Didn't get the sort right.

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  3. Got this from a discussion thread on MCC: Bumgarner now holds the record for most scoreless starts of at least 7 innings in postseason history with 6. I really think we are getting into best postseason pitcher in MLB history discussion time here.

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    1. They showed this on ESPN. MadBum is now tied with Tom Glavine with 6 scoreless postseason starts. Glavine took 35 tries to get there. MadBum has done it in 13.

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  4. 3 of Giants 8 starters last night were from their 2008 draft, 2 from the 1st round (including supplemental).
    Less consequental, Gordon Beckham, also 1st round of 2008 (8), drove in the 3rd run off Clayton Kershaw in the very consequential 3-0 win over the Dodgers in the penultimate game contributing in a small way to the Giants being in the WC.

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  5. last night we saw a classic prize fight. upstart kid vs cagey vet. upstart kid landed tons of body blows, but this thing was going the distance and the cagey vet let the kid punch himself out.
    maddy pitched a masterful game...pitched to every batter's weakness and hardly missed his spots. mets didnt start working the count till the 5th...and by then, it was too late.
    dont want to beat a dead horse, but the mlb has to deal with the home plate ump situation. if they dont, then they need to throw out the rule book on what is considered a k...because it doesnt exist now. and if the league actually wants run production and time of games to change....they need to go to robo umps
    and they also need to fix their joke of instant replay
    im sorry, but span was safe, it wasnt even close. enough of having some dudes in ny looking at tv's in a sterile environment....put a replay official in every park
    ballsiest move by the mets last night was pitching around posey to get to pence, who is in a mini slump...guess they looked at the giants stats about hitting with bases juiced this season
    should be an interesting series vs the cubs...if the sp holds, should be a hell of a chess game between bochy and maddon
    bacci

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  6. Two at bats changed this game. In the 4th Span walked on 8 pitches, followed by Belt who drew a 7-pitch walk. That 15 pitch sequence would have been more damaging to Thor had Span not been thrown out (questionable call at 2nd) trying to steal. Bumgarner had only thrown 21 pitches through 3 innings at that point - though he went on to throw 28 pitches in the 4th - and was in good shape to go deep into the game. With today's focus on pitch count, it's tough to overcome 15 pitches to two hitters in back-to-back at bats.

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    1. Questionable is 'close.' Even I could see he was safe, especially on the replay. And I'm not very good at that and, consequently,I'd make a terrible ump. Yet, like I said, even I could see it.

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