I had tears in my eyes even before the 9th inning because I couldn’t believe what Bumgarner was doing. 270 innings this season and 2 days rest. At the same time you were thinking it was more than they could possibly ask him, you also realized they couldn’t possibly take him out.
Bochy went with Affeldt and Bumgarner because they are his two most trusted pitchers on the team, and that was that. When Casilla loaded the bases against the Cardinals, it was Affeldt who saved the day. When Jonathan Sanchez melted down against the Phillies in 2010, it was also Affeldt (and Bumgarner out of the pen, oddly enough). Both series clinching games.
There was a dreamlike quality to the game after Bumgarner came in, and I think it took a while for the crowd to realize what he was doing. For all the talk about being ready… it just doesn’t happen. When it got to the 9th they got real loud though. Perhaps it unnerved the defense, as they made ridiculous mistakes to put a runner on 3rd. But Bumgarner showed (as if he had to) why he was the only pitcher the Giants could use in that situation. Totally unfazed.
Whew. It’s both humbling and mind blowing to get this, because the Giants are simultaneously 3-time champions, and also feel like they just got one of the least likely championships I’ve ever seen. I can make a strong argument for the 2010 and 2012 teams being, if not the best, at least in the top two teams over the course of the full season. Both were heavily underrated. But with the loss of Matt Cain from the starting rotation and Angel Pagan from the outfield and leadoff spot, and with their record over the course of the year, this team can’t make the claim of being the best all the way through. They can only claim that having Madison Bumgarner more than made up for any number of holes. Honorable mentions for MVP go to Pence and Panda. Also, it couldn’t have worked out better than having Morse as a DH; took all the AL advantage away.
I’m guessing the two double plays the Giants had just turned were the main reason.
Blast, that one was a heartbreaker, but losing the World Series in 7 by one run is nothing to be ashamed of. My Royals didn’t beat themselves, they just got beat. At least that “longest playoff drought” monkey is finally off our back, and we have an AL Pennant to celebrate. I can take comfort in that.
Congrats, Giants. I can’t believe Bumgarner didn’t get tired at all, and Sandoval is an absolute beast. A championship well-earned.
Both parts of this statement are true. Official scorers did originally give the win to Bumgarner, but then changed their minds. Joe Buck is also an idiot.
Right after Buck said that Bumgarner would be getting credit for the win, we get a runner on 3rd. So Buck is both a jinx and an idiot.
If Gordon had been sent – when was the last time a World Series ended on a play at the plate?
My first guy out of the bullpen would’ve been Lincecum, which is why I’m not going to be in the Hall of Fame. (Seriously, I feel bad for Timmy – totally forgotten.)
As said above, the Giants are the least likely of champions, but (the motto of this postseason) I’ll Take It. They were 13 games under .500 in June. They got shut out 8 times in July. They got beat by the Dodgers 17-0 in September. They entered the post-season without their (pre-season) ace and their center fielder. I figured they stumbled into a wild-card spot, and would be stumbling out quickly. Very happy to be wrong.
Congratulation to the Royals on a helluva season and a great Series.
Amazing that the Giants closer only got to throw four pitches in an entire 7-game Series. And amazing that Jake Peavy now gets his second straight ring for doing pretty much nothing. Is he going to buy a cable car now?
Panda is going to cost the Red Sox big-time now, but he’s worth it.
Triple? It was a single, and he advanced on an error by the Keystone Cops (as described upthread). The box score shows only 1 double for the Royals, by Gordon in the 3rd off of Hudson, and no triples.
As long as we’re nitpicking the details: given that Hudson didn’t make it out of the 2nd, he would have been hard pressed to give up a double in the 3rd.
Take it from someone with experience - there’s no such thing as “understand” in “scoring rules”. There have been some modifications over the years, including, IIRC, determining who gets a save (there was a time when the scorer had some leeway if more than one pitcher qualified, rather than having to give it to the last pitcher).
The rules say that if the starter does not qualify for the win, then:
[QUOTE=Official Baseball Rules 10.17(b)(2)] the official scorer shall credit as the winning pitcher(…)the relief pitcher who, in the official scorer’s judgment was the most effective, if there is more than one relief pitcher.
[/QUOTE]
According to ESPN, the scorer conferred with Elias Sports Bureau before changing the decision.
AFAIK, there’s nothing that stops the scorer, or MLB, from changing it again.
Again, that’s not what the rule says. Here is the MLB Rulebook (PDF). The relevant rule, 10.17, is on page 113.
Rule 10.17(b), which people keep quoting, deals specifically to the situation in which the winning run scored while the starter was in the game, and the starter pitched fewer than 5 innings. It has no relevance to this game, as the winning run scored after Hudson left the game.
The only scenarios in which the pitcher who was in the game when the winning run scored does not get the win are: he is the starter and pitched less than 5 innings (rule 10.17(b)), or he was “ineffective in a brief appearance” (rule 10.17(c)).
Unless you want to claim that two and a third innings of no-run, one-hit pitching is “brief and ineffective”, there is no way to assign the win to anyone except Affeldt. Period. There is no other way to read the rules.
