Madison Bumgarner Chugs Along in Game One of World Series as the Real "Big Game" Pitcher

When does a nickname become more of a burden than a blessing? “Big Game” James Shields took the mound for the World Series opener with a career 3-4 record in the postseason, and a 5.14 ERA. He left it with worse career numbers (3-5, 5.74 career ERA), after getting shelled in the first inning and getting pulled out of the game in the fourth inning with no outs and two more runners on base.

The nickname apparently came from high school, and the first reference in a major publication appeared in April of 2008, the very year that Tampa Bay would make its first postseason appearance, before Shields had thrown a playoff inning. He reinforced it early in his career–or certainly didn’t dispel it–with solid outings in that first postseason, winning two games and posting a 2.88 ERA. Since then? Not so much.

That continued to start this postseason run. Lost amidst the Royals’ eight game surge to the World Series is this: Shields gave up a first inning home run against the Athletics and was long chased from the game when the Royals mounted a comeback from down 7-2.

Unlike that magical night, though, there would be no comeback at the K. Madison Bumgarner was not “clean” early in the game, but came up with the right pitches to extinguish any opportunities for a Royals’ rally. In the first inning, Eric Hosmer hit a Bumgarner fastball to the warning track to end the first inning with Lorenzo Cain on base. In the second, it looked like he was going to continue to rack up the pitches to get through the early innings, but on the 30th pitch, jammed Salvador Perez for the return chopper to the mound, to turn an inning ending double play.

Then, in the the third, Bumgarner came up with the biggest performance yet, after the Royals put runners at 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Bumgarner struck out Alcides Escobar and Nori Aoki, then after another walk to Lorenzo Cain, faced Eric Hosmer with bases loaded and two outs. I asked about his thought process and how he attacked Hosmer in that key at-bat, knowing that he had hit a hard shot the previous time up. Bumgarner said he went with the cutter, knowing that Hosmer was going to be aggressive in that situation, and got him to roll over it for the ground out. That was the key moment that set the rest of the game on its ho-hum path. The crowd was back in it, the situation was there for Kansas City to get back in the game, and Hosmer swung at the first pitch and could do nothing with it.

After that, the real “Big Game” pitcher continued to chug along, with no real threats once the Giants expanded the lead again in the fourth. Madison Bumgarner has gained notoriety this postseason for his series clinching celebrations, going from four beers after the Wild Card win, to five after the NLDS, to six after the NLCS. (We are guessing seven next?) He brushed aside any concerns about how much beer he was consuming–“I don’t really drink much of the beer. I pour it on me. It’s really difficult to drink six at a time”–and said that he continued it as the celebration because he didn’t want to be the reason the team lost.

I don’t think that will be a problem. He’s now at one run allowed through 22 innings in the World Series. That’s some Big Game.

[photo by USA Today Sports Images]