Is San Francisco baseball’s next dynasty?
To say we’re witnessing greatness is an understatement, as Madison Bumgarner is currently throwing arguably the best pitching the modern era of the World Series has ever seen. The 25-year-old ace is the first player since Josh Becket of the 2003 Boston Redsox to throw a complete shutout in the W.S. and is still perfect in each of his four starts. With 27 total strikeouts and a .120 BAA, the most impressive stat under his belt is an eye-raising 0.29 ERA. Following their 11-4 blowout Saturday night, the San Francisco Giants were back at AT&T Park for their final home game of the year. In comparison to being content with stealing one game to extend the series back to Kansas City, the Royals called their ace James Shields to face-off against Bumgarn.
The game initially started off as a pitcher’s duel, but that was before Brandon Crawford started things off bringing in two early RBIs before the 5th inning. With the hearts of the team Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence both getting huge motivation from Crawford’s hits to get the Orangemen their first runs of the game; momentum was already on maximum for Madison to calmly pitch San Francisco even closer to their next championship victory. Shields wasn’t lucky enough to last the entire game, showing visibility of fatigue following the 6th inning.
By the 8th, relievers Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis were inserted into the game, but were victim to a huge double to deep center from Juan Perez, followed by a single to left from Brandon Crawford, to blow the game wide open at 5-0. Bumgarner would cap off the game with a low 117 pitch count, to give the Giants a favorable 3-2 lead. The Royals now head back home for game 6 and the possibility of a game 7; highlighted by the return of DH Billy Butler being inserted back into the lineup. With the team showing a slump over the weekend, we expect them to be rejuvenated by their home crowd when game 6 begins Tuesday at 8:00pm ET on FOX.