Giants one win from title

Madison Bumgarner’s continued dominance on the mound has the San Francisco Giants one win away from another world championship.

Bumgarner pitched a complete game, four-hit shut out as the NL champions defeated Kansas City 5-0 Sunday in game five of the World Series at AT&T Park.

San Francisco, champions in 2010 and 2012, grabbed a three games to two lead and will get their first crack at a third title in five seasons in Tuesday’s game six in Kansas City.

Kansas City got just one runner to second base on Omar Infante’s one-out double in the top of the fifth. Bumgarner calmly struck out Jarrod Dyson and James Shields to escape that threat, and starting with those outs retired 14 of the last 15 batters he faced.

In four career starts in the Fall Classic, Bumgarner has been sensational, compiling a 4-0 record and allowing just one earned run in 31 innings pitched (0.29 ERA). The left-hander secured the first complete game shut out in World Series play since Florida Marlins’ right-hander Josh Beckett beat the New York Yankees in game six in 2003.

The host Giants got Bumgarner the only run he’d need in the bottom of the second against Shields. Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt started the inning with singles and Pence alertly tagged and went to third (Belt also moved up to second) on Travis Ishikawa’s deep fly ball to center field. Brandon Crawford followed with a ground out that chased home Pence for a 1-0 lead.

It was the first of three RBIs on the day for Crawford, who added run-scoring singles in the fourth, also off Shields, and as part of a three-run eighth against the Kansas City bullpen that put the game away.

“(Shields) was tough, he was getting me into some difficult counts,” Crawford said. “I was just trying to put the bat on the ball.”

The extra runs hardly seemed necessary. After tossing seven innings of one-run ball in a 7-1 victory in the series opener, Bumgarner carved up the Kansas City lineup in game five, striking out eight and not walking a batter. In six postseason starts, the 25-year old has struck out 41, while walking only six.

“For some reason I keep getting real lucky this time of year,” said the Giants’ ace. “This time of year you got to be ready to go any day, whenever you are called up (and) we’re playing really good baseball right now.”

“He’s so fun to watch. He’s always fun to watch,” Crawford said of Bumgarner. “In the postseason you can look at him and he looks like he’s just pitching in the middle of June, like it’s no big deal. We just feed off of him.”

It was just a 2-0 cushion when San Francisco got some breathing room against the unlikeliest of sources. In that eighth in which Crawford made it 5-0, Juan Perez missed a home run by inches, settling for a two-run double off Wade Davis that doubled the Giants’ lead to 4-0. The first two runs of the inning were charged to Kelvin Herrera, who before Sunday hadn’t allowed a run in the postseason since the Royals’ victory over Oakland in the Wild Card Game, spanning eight appearances. Davis was charged with the other run, which snapped his scoreless inning streak in the postseason at 7 1/3 innings.

“Getting those extra runs, that was a nice cushion for me,” said Bumgarner, who in the ninth retired Kansas City in order on 10 pitches.

Shields bounced back from a rough game one start (3 IP, 5 ER) by going six innings and allowing two earned runs to take the tough-luck loss.


Story link at rockdalecitizen.com