The San Francisco Giants beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in Game 7 to win the 2014 World Series. Giants’ pitcher Madison Bumgarner earned a well deserved Most Valuable Player award with his outstanding pitching performance in the World Series, as well as the rest of the postseason.
Bumgarner won 2 of the Giants’ games in the World Series as a starting pitcher, then added a 5 inning scoreless save on Wednesday night to finish off the Royals, to give his team their 3rd championship in the last 5 years. The last even-numbered year World Series that the Giants didn’t win was back in 2008. Pencil them in to win it again in 2016.
Bumgarner was also MVP of the National League Championship Series, and finished the postseason with a record 52 2/3 innings pitched, while going 4-1, with a 1.03 earned run average. As good as those numbers are, he was even better in the World Series. He became only the 5th pitcher ever, and first in 49 years, to win 2 games in a World Series, pitch 20 innings, and have an ERA under o.50, with his 0.43. His career World Series stats are 4-0 with an unbelievable 0.25 ERA and a save.
With the way the Royals played, the Giants needed everything Bumgarner could give them to eventually win a 7-game series by 1 run. The Royals barely made the playoffs, and had to beat the Oakland A’s in a one game playoff 9-8 in 12 innings, before sweeping the team with the best record in the major leagues, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, in their 3-game American League Divisional Series.
In the American League Championship Series, the Royals were once again the underdog, this time to the Baltimore Orioles. Not fazed at all, the Royals swept the Orioles in 4 games, and entered the World Series 8-0 in the 2014 postseason. But getting past the Giants proved to be too much of a task for the Royals to earn their first World Series Championship since 1985.
As a wild card, the Giants also had to win a 1-game playoff to make it into the Divisional Series, pounding the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-0. Then they dispatched the Washington Senators, who had the best record in the National League, 3 games to 1. Next up was the always formidable St. Louis Cardinals. But the Giants needed just 5 games to finish them off, winning 4 of them.
This World Series will be remembered most for the outstanding pitching performance of Madison Bumgarner, as well as the San Francicso Giants taking the mantle as the most dominating team since the New York Yankees of the late 1990s. Can they repeat, and win a World Series in an odd-numbered year, or doesn’t it only work every 2 years? We shall see, within the next 12 months.
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Sports With Frank Thomas
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