Bummer!

The Kansas City Royals just lost Game 7 of the 2014 World Series. Bummer! That is not because of the fact THAT they lost. That is the reason WHY they lost. Bummer!

The San Francisco Giants just won their third world championship in the last five years. They have cemented their title as the baseball team of the 2010’s the same way the San Francisco 49ers won their way into the position as the best football team of the 1980’s. They defeated the Kansas City Royals this time for one reason and one reason only — because of the masterful pitching of pitcher Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner pitched and won Games One and Five to give the Giants two wins out of the four that would be needed to win the series. That in itself would have probably won him the Series MVP award. But what he did in Game Seven will live on in the history books for as long as baseball is talked about. When the Giants’ starter Tim Hudson faltered in his Game 7 start, the Giants battled the Royals to gain a 3 – 2 lead by the fifth inning. Giants manager Bruce Bochy (who cinched himself a spot in the Hall of Fame with this series) brought in Game Five starter Bumgarner, with just two day’s rest, to get a few innings out of him to last till he could get to his deep bullpen (set up man and closer).

But instead, Bumgarner pitched himself into baseball history with a legendary performance of five shutout innings (allowing only two hits and NO walks) and the series clinching win in Game 7. Three out his team’s four wins. A microscopic ERA of under a third of a run per game. When other people were pitching, the Kansas City Royals were the better team. When Bumgarner was pitching, the Royals not only couldn’t get many hits, they never seemed to be able to hit the ball hard, and in the end, they could not even compete.

Fastballs when the Royals were expecting curves. Off speed when they were expecting the heat. Inside fastballs when they were expecting it outside. Outside when they were expecting it in. High heat when all else was expected that no one could catch up to. Never in the seventh game of a playoff had a “long reliever” been so dominant. His smooth, slingshot delivery might become THE baseball pitching style in future years as the young always seem to copy the successful. Not a bad player to copy.  Bumgarner just threw down his flag as a player to be seriously considered as a Hall of Fame worthy pitcher of his era.  He is only 25 years old, folks.  Methinks there is more greatness to come.

There is a point in baseball, with all of the capabilities of hitters to smash the ball all over the ballpark, when a pitcher somehow becomes so dominant at commanding the strike zone that hitters simply cannot hit that pitcher. And at that point, if the team with that pitcher is in the lead, the team with THAT pitcher that is unhittable will win the game.

Such is the case with the Kansas City Royals vs. Madison Bumgarner. They did fine against the rest of the Giants’ pitchers, but they could NOT hit Bumgarner, and they lost the 7th game of the World Series because of it. There can be only ONE word to describe how the Royals must be feeling. Bummer!