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- Madison Bumgarner is the 2014 World Series MVP.
- He played in relief in Game 7 to help the SF Giants win.
- It was the Giants’ third World Series title since 2010.
San Francisco Giants ace lefty Madison Bumgarner was proclaimed 2014 World Series MVP on Oct. 29.
San Francisco Giants ace lefty Madison Bumgarner was proclaimed 2014 World Series MVP on Oct. 29.
Bumgarner was so dominant, he was the clear-cut choice to be the MVP, per MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince:
“We have never seen anything quite like Bumgarner on this postseason stage and in this Fall Classic. The Giants claimed their third title in five seasons in a 3-2 Game 7 victory in which Bumgarner cemented his obvious, unanimous claim to the Most Valuable Player award presented by Chevrolet. Starter, reliever. Four days’ rest, two days’ rest. The situation didn’t matter, because the outcome was always the same.
“Bumgarner, all scraggly hair and backwoods beard and effortless efficiency, mowed down everything that crossed his path, including the (Kansas City) Royals’ perceived desitny.
“‘He put that team on his back and carried them,’ a flustered Billy Butler said in a quiet Royals clubhouse. ‘You’ve got to appreciate that. Right now, I don’t. But you’ve got to tip your hat to him.’
“Before we go any further, let’s start with this: You can make an argument that this was the greatest postseason pitching performance the game has ever seen.
“And a relatively easy argument at that.
“Bumgarner made seven appearances this postseason and amassed 52 2/3 innings — the most innings by anyone ever, surpassing Curt Schilling (48 1/3 for the D-backs in 2001). The Giants lefty’s 1.03 ERA is ‘only’ the third lowest all-time among those with at least 30 innings of postseason work, but the two guys he trails — Burt Hooten of the (Los Angeles) Dodgers (0.82 over 33 innings in 1981) and John Smoltz of the Braves (0.95 over 38 innings in 1996)– had a significantly lesser workload.
“‘To me, you’d be hard-pressed to find a perfromance like this ever,’ Giants catcher Buster Posey said. ‘It’s got to be one of the very few in the history of baseball. What he did tonight was incredible.’
“Five innings of relief on two days’ rest. No runs, two hits, no walks, four strikeouts. Sixty-eight pitches, 50 for strikes.
“Maybe the Royals and their fans had hope in that moment in the ninth, but hope gave way to weak contact (a harmless Salvador Perez popup into Pablo Sandoval’s waiting glove), as has often been the case against Bumgarner.
“In an evenly-matched World Series, the Giants had the cheat code. The last pitcher to throw four-plus scoreless innings in a World Series Game 7 on two days’ rest was some guy named Sandy Koufax, in 1965, in what some consider to be the greatest game ever pitched.
“Maybe Bumgarner isn’t Koufax. But being Bumgarner is good enough.”
Oh, yeah, #MadBum. Oh, yeah, #WorldSeries champs: http://t.co/l7MjR7RX37 pic.twitter.com/AGFU0ibsFR— MLB (@MLB) October 30, 2014
ESPN’s Jayson Stark also chimes in on Bumgarner’s performance duing the 2014 World Series:
“But let’s be honest here. You don’t need to break down the video to understand the real reason this team won the World Series. The real reason could be summed up kind of like this:
“Madison Bumgarner.
“He’s already performed the job of suffocating No. 1 starter, in Games 1 and 5 of this World Series. But then, for his final act of October heroism, came this — only the third five-inning save in any baseball game, regular season or postseason, in the past quarter-century. Insane.
“‘Just when you don’t think there’s any more room for him to grow, he takes it to another level,’ said reliever Javier Lopez, one of the many members of the Giants’ bullpen whose presence was rendered moot by Bumgarner in Game 7. ‘I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of what this guy can do. And he wants the ball, whether it’s starting or relieving. He’s taking everybody’s job.
“…And why not? Bumgarner gave up a single to the first hitter he faced, O/3/Infante. And that was that. For the next hour. He buzzed through the next 14 Royals to reach home plate. And only four other pitchers have retired that many hitters in a row in any winner-take-all World Series game ever played. But the other four were all starters, of course.
“So out he went, inning after inning. For the sixth. For the seventh. For the eighth. This was Madison Bumgarner’s Randy Johnson moment. Except that in Game 7, 2001, the Unit was asked to get only three outs. The Giants’ ace was asked to get 15.
“‘But he was so confident,’ Pence said, ‘and doing so good that there was like a momentum switch. Obviously, you could see he was locked in. You could feel how good he was.’
“The ace took a raucous crowd of 40,535 very loud people and neutralized them. He took a Royals offense that had piled up 10 eye-popping runs the night before and switched off their ignition.
“He was never supposed to go out there for the eighth. He was never supposed to go out there for the ninth. But as the outs and the zeroes kept mounting, it became clear to everyone: It would have taken a court order to get Bruce Bochy to yank Madison Bumgarner out of this game.”
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