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KANSAS
CITY, Mo. -- It was their rallying cry in good times and in bad, a
joyous chorus picked up by Hunter Pence while watching a college
football game. The Giants used it to celebrate homers, fire up the fan
base on the eve of the postseason and check off one clinch after the
next during a stirring October run.
On Wednesday, the cheer served as a summary of baseball's latest dynasty.
Champions in 2010? Yes. Champions in 2012? Yes. Champions in 2014? Yes.
Madison Bumgarner threw the
Giants' first pitch of the World Series and the last, a fastball that
was popped up with the tying run on third. When it settled into third
baseman Pablo Sandoval's glove, the Giants had a 3-2 win over the Kansas
City Royals in a wildly entertaining Game 7 and a permanent place in
the game's history books. They are the first franchise to win three
titles in five years since the Yankees of the late 1990s, and the first
National League franchise to have such a dominant stretch since the
Cardinals of the 1940s.
Over three postseasons, with three vastly
different casts, the Giants proved unbeatable. They have won 10
consecutive postseason series, a streak that spelled dynasty in a
clubhouse soaked by cheap beer and Mumm champagne.
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"In today's game, if it's not (a dynasty), it's as close as you're going to get," catcher Buster Posey said.
Posey
rushed to meet Bumgarner as the ball settled into Sandoval's glove. As
the bullpen emptied and the dugout rushed for the mound, the two
superstars, the 27-year-old catcher and the 25-year-old left-hander,
shared a hug. After the postseason the Giants just went through, they
might have been holding each other up as much as celebrating.
Posey
caught every inning but two of the championship run, including every
pitch of Bumgarner's record 522/3 innings. Bumgarner pitched 21 innings
in the series, earning two wins and a five-inning save. He never
flinched, but when it was over and Bumgarner was MVP of the World
Series, as well as of the NLCS, the facade broke.
"You know what, I can't lie to you anymore," he said. "I'm a little tired now."
Deep
in their eyes, the Giants all looked a little worn down Wednesday
night. They are the first team to start a postseason with a wild-card
game and finish it with a parade. The procession kicked off shortly
after Wednesday's game, when manager Bruce Bochy walked the 20-pound
World Series trophy into the center of the clubhouse. His eyes red, he
looked at a group that willed itself to a title nobody else saw coming.
"I'm
numb through all of this," Bochy said, smiling and shaking his head.
"This group of warriors continues to amaze me. Nobody wanted it more
than them."
That was true when the Giants jumped out to the best
record of baseball through the season's first two months, and when they
fell flat as the summer wore on. There was an unshakable faith, and when
it wavered, the Giants reminded one another of who they were.
"Through
all the tough times, we said, 'Don't forget: We're the best team in the
world,' " Pence said. "You've got to believe it."
Bochy sent the
message one last time in the minutes before the first pitch. The road
team had lost Game 7 nine straight times, but Bochy gathered his players
and reminded them that they won the wild-card game in Pittsburgh. They
took the first game of the NLDS in Washington, D.C., and the opener of
the NLCS in St. Louis. After the speech, Bochy got to work, and he had
one of his busiest nights as a manager. The Royals' Ned Yost did, too.
For
the first time in a Game 7, neither starter would record more than 10
outs, and both bullpens warmed up starting with the second inning. The
Giants struck first, loading the bases in the top of the second and
scoring on sacrifice flies by Michael Morse and Brandon Crawford. The
lead wouldn't last long.
Tim Hudson waited 16 years for his first
World Series, and when he threw his first pitch Wednesday, Hudson -- at
39 years, 107 days -- became the oldest pitcher to ever start a Game 7
in the World Series. The biggest start of his career lasted just 42
minutes.
Hudson's pitches flattened out in the second, and the
Royals quickly took advantage. Billy Butler opened with a single up the
middle and rumbled home on Alex Gordon's double to right-center. When
Salvador Perez was hit just above the knee, Jeremy Affeldt and Tim
Lincecum started scrambling in the visitor's bullpen. Gordon scored on a
sacrifice fly, and Hudson was knocked out by Alcides Escobar's single. A
night after Jake Peavy got just four outs, Hudson recorded five, but
the Giants were ready.
Bochy called Affeldt into his office
before the game and told the late-innings left-hander to have his knee
brace on from the first pitch and to stretch when Hudson took the mound.
The Giants hoped to get a long night from Hudson, but if he couldn't
last, Affeldt was to provide a bridge to Bumgarner. Affeldt gave up one
hit over 21/3 innings, lowering his career postseason ERA to 0.86 and
extending his scoreless outings streak to 22 games, one shy of Mariano
Rivera's postseason record.
"He saved us," Ryan Vogelsong said. "He absolutely saved us."
As
Vogelsong watched Affeldt set the Royals down, he noticed that
Bumgarner was starting to stir. The left-hander watched the end of one
inning from the edge of the dugout, his long fingers wrapped around a
chain-link fence, his toes inches from the warning track. The Giants
wanted desperately to get a lead in Bumgarner's hands, and Morse and Joe
Panik assured that they would. With a runner on and no outs in the
third, the rookie second baseman dived headlong for a grounder and
glove-flipped it to Crawford, who completed a double play. Panik, a
converted shortstop, has never even worked on that particular play.
"I've never ever done that," he said. "There wasn't enough time to think about anything. It was just instincts taking over."
Brute
strength took over an inning later, getting the Giants the last run
they would need in 2014. Singles by Sandoval and Pence brought Kelvin
Herrera, usually a seventh-inning reliever, into the fourth. He threw a
two-strike 99 mph fastball in on Morse's hands, but the 6-foot-5 slugger
nicknamed "The Beast" was strong enough to fist it into right field,
giving the Giants the lead.
Bumgarner had only two days to rest
after a 117-pitch shutout, and he didn't waste many bullets in the
bullpen, throwing just enough warm-up pitches to get his arm slot into
place. The staff's ace sauntered slowly out of the bullpen at the start
of the fifth, jogging to the infield and then walking the rest of the
way.
"As soon as I saw him warming up and we had the lead, I knew
it was over," Hudson said. "I knew the big fella was going to get it
done."
For four innings, it was that simple. Bumgarner gave up a
leadoff single but then retired 14 straight. Before the game, pitching
coach Dave Righetti had told Bochy that Bumgarner was good for 50-70
pitches. Trainer Dave Groeschner wasn't concerned as the ninth
approached.
"He's so strong, and he willed himself through this," Groeschner said. "He's special."
Righetti
has long known that, but he checked on Bumgarner, just in case. As
closer Santiago Casilla warmed up for the bottom of the ninth, Righetti
looked over at Bumgarner in the dugout. It was hard to tell if he had a
pulse. Bumgarner looked up and nodded. The ninth was his.
After
two quick outs, Alex Gordon hit a liner to center that Gregor Blanco
considered diving for. He backed off and the ball skipped past him and
toward the wall. Blanco's heart sank. He thought Gordon would circle the
bases to tie the game, but he held up at third. Bumgarner had carried
the Giants so far that it was only fitting that he picked up a teammate
one more time. He got Perez to pop up, setting off the celebration and
capping one of the great postseasons any player in any sport has ever
had.
"He's amazing, he really is," said Hudson, a champion for
the first time after 16 seasons. "He's going to go down as one of the
best to ever play the game."
These Giants have permanently etched
their names into the record books. Sandoval set a postseason record with
26 hits. Posey has a third title on a resume that could put him in the
Hall of Fame. If he gets there, he'll join Bochy. Nine previous managers
had won three titles. All are enshrined in Cooperstown.
Bochy
just smiled when asked if he's leading a dynasty, saying that's for
others to decide. A few feet away, Matt Cain, the longest-tenured Giant,
took in a third celebration.
"I don't know if we are, but this is a lot of fun," he said. "I hope we keep doing it."
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