If you missed it, I covered the San Francisco Giants regular season in Part 1. Time for the good stuff.
As I mentioned yesterday, there are no ground rules for this list and everything is listed in chronological order. Moments can stick out for different reasons. The rough draft was literally me sitting on my front porch drinking coffee and just thinking about the playoffs. I really miss baseball.
At least 10 different things jumped out at me. For instance, I thought the Hunter Pence homer in Game 1 of the World Series was a huge moment. Then as I kept adding things to the list it got bumped down. So it gets an honorable mention. Others that just missed the cut were Hunter Strickland striking out Ian Desmond in Game 1 of the NLDS and Randy Choate throwing it away in Game 3 of the NLCS.
After some more beard scratching and coffee drinking on the front porch, here’s my 7 best moments of the Giants 2014 championship run.
October 1 – Crawford’s grand slam of silence and Bumgarner’s first shutout
Were you as nervous as I was heading in to this game? I hate coin-flip games. Anything can happen. Randomness can determine a ball game. So when the top of the 4th inning of the NL Wild Card game began to unfold we were all unsure of what would happen. Continue reading →
As a San Francisco Giants fan, 2014 was a great freaking year. They won the World Series for the 3rd time in 5 years and cemented a dynasty in the modern game. There was a fast start to the season, a rut in the middle, and then a Fall surge to the title. We got to watch it all. Whether you saw them in Scottsdale, spent time on the shores of McCovey Cove, or just watched from the couch at home, all Giants fans will remember this past year as something special.
Here’s where I get to be corny. I’m going with the original idea of the 14 best moments from 2014. I know, I had to stretch far for that one. Someone else may have already beaten me to it, I don’t care. I want to relive what happened and I suspect you’ll enjoy reliving it too.
I have no ground rules for this list. A moment can be anything I want to shoehorn in just for the fun of it. It was just that kind of crazy, wonderful year. This will be split in to 2 parts. Today will be the regular season, Tuesday will be the playoffs. Everything will be in chronological order. All clips courtesy MLB and /or Youtube.
The Giants wasted no time making the 2014 season exciting. Right away the team put together a comeback victory. After falling behind 6-2 and 7-3 to Arizona they put together a couple of rallys and started the year on a positive note. You didn’t want to look too much in to one game, but it felt like this team knew how to win right out of the gate.
Madison Bumgarner started and only lasted 4 innings. He allowed 4 runs but amazingly none of them were earned because of 2 errors by the infield to start the bottom of the 4th inning. The comeback started in the top of the 7th as Michael Morse singled off Brandon McCarthy to lead off the inning. Five pitches later McCarthy had 2 quick outs and Joaquin Arias was on 1st after a fielder’s choice. Ehire Adrianza then pinch hit and hooked a 3-2 pitch into the RF corner to score Arias. It began a streak of 5 consecutive hits with 2 outs. Continue reading →
Buster Posey dishes out his third championship #BusterHug to Madison Bumgarner moments after Pablo Sandoval caught a foul popup to secure the Giants’ third World Series in five years (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
For the third time in the last five years, the San Francisco Giants are World Series Champions!
Riding the superhero left arm of Madison Bumgarner, the Giants squeezed out a 3-2 win in game 7 of the World Series to down the Kansas City Royals.
Willie, Chad and Eric record our longest podcast of the year to discuss this memorable World Series; the heroes, the almost-goats, and what it took to fuel a remarkable run that has placed the black and orange in “dynasty” status.
Even if you have to listen to it in two parts, sit back, relax, and bask in the glow of three Commissioner’s trophies!
You’ll need to frame the third one, there on the left. Yeah, that one.
I really can’t write much. It’s been almost three hours since the impossible happened. Especially after that single-almost-turned-into-a-homerun took our collective breaths away.
But, Madison Bumgarner calmly stated, “I got this.”
After an improbable closing relief appearance, World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner earned the save with five innings of magical relief to preserve a 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals that secured the Giants third World Series Championship in the last five years.
I really have no words.
And I need to SCUBA dive tomorrow.
Look for a giddy podcast sometime in the next day or two. I really have no idea what’s going on. A humpback whale might appear in the Mojave desert for all I care.
God dammit I love this game, this team, this City, and all of you fine people. And I’m not even drunk.
Buster Posey congratulates Madison Bumgarner after another magical performance: a complete game shutout in a 5-0 victory over the KC Royals that have put the Giants up 3-2 in the World Series and on the precipice of a dynasty. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)
And the San Francisco Giants will be World Champions for the third time in five seasons.
We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to talk about our favorite team, potentially on the eve of the clincher as the Giants head back to Kansas City up three games to two. If not tomorrow, then perhaps game 7. Even if they don’t win it all, this has been a hell of a ride.
Listen to episode 76 as Willie, Ben, Chad, and lucky charm guest Eric break down the first five games of the World Series and look forward to a hopeful clincher in either game 6 or 7.
These moments, right now, are why we do this show.
The TortureCast, the podcast by and for fans of the San Francisco Giants.
Incredibly, our boys in black and orange have done it for a third time in five years! In a rousing 4-1 NLCS win over the St. Louis Cardinals, the Giants move onto the fall classic to face the young upstart Kansas City Royals beginning Tuesday night. Willie, Ben, Chad and guest Eric Nathanson review the NLCS, including the momentous homeruns hit by Michael Morse and Travis Ishikawa that have left indelible marks in Giants’ lore. In the last half of the podcast, we preview the Royals, their strengths and weaknesses, and how the Giants might exploit them. We also talk about Hunter Pence’s lack of geography knowledge, a horrible ESPN article, our favorite guys and we make series predictions (hint, all 4 of us take the Giants). Tune in for a jam-packed special World Series episode of the TortureCast!
You’ll be conjuring the name “Ishikawa” until the Giants move to London in 2134. (San Jose Mercury News)
Travis Ishikawa.
The guy who wore jeans to the 2010 World Series ring ceremony (in 2011).
The guy who bounced around on the Brewers, Orioles, Yankees, Pirates, and spent most of this year in AAA.
And he’s our starting left fielder in the NLCS?
When did this exactly happen? I know they say “all hands on deck” in the playoffs, but for the Giants, it’s almost as if Bochy asked Sabean, “Hey, got any stale donuts left in the break room? I’m looking for just a morsel to keep me from eating my large cap.” Yet, these seemingly stale morsels: the Paniks, Duffys, Perezes, Ariass (that looks bad there), and of course, the Ishikawas, may not be your first choice for a fresh pastry, but dammit THEY WILL FEED YOU!
And in a pivotal, uncharacteristic moment (for Bochy and this team), Ishikawa misplayed a ball hit to him in left, and as it sailed over his head for an RBI double, you could literally hear the moans escape from AT&T. The redditors and others just screaming, “SEE, I TOLD YOU ISHI CAN’T PLAY OUTFIELD, CLEARLY JUAN PEREZ IS THE ONE AND ONLY GATEKEEPER TO THE WORLD SERIES….DUMB BOCHY!”
No sense screaming about any and all mistakes made in June and July when they were in the trough of the big leagues. Much like the collective screaming of millions of not-Ishikawa-jersey-wearing Giants fans were abated a bit by the fact that Bumgarner minimized the damage to that one run. They were in the game.
Then Panik, who hadn’t homered since he grew pubic hair, yanked one just fair to put the Giants ahead.
Wait, the Giants hit a homerun? Ok, so Crawford and Belt have done it, I guess it’s been long enough. When do we get the run scored via the “ball-stuck-in-Pierzynski’s-orbital-socket,” a misplayed ball by the Cardinals because the ball literally split in two after a broken bat fragment julienned it, or the wild buffalo sacrifice at second base? Apparently that well dried up tonight, and the baseball gods smiled upon the black and orange masses to give us a game for the annals of Giants lore. Not only did Bumgarner give up a homerun to a lefty for the first time since April, but the third string catcher also launched one off of him in the third. It appeared that the devil magic was bubbling from the Cardinals side.
I myself was pessimistic. No matter how many improbable comebacks this team has made, you figure they can’t win EVERY GAME in dramatic fashion…..right?
Enter Michael Morse. After both starters settled down and cruising, the 8th inning came like a well-lubricated freight train. Morse was actually on deck in the 7th to pinch hit for Bum, but since they went so quickly, and with Bum wanting to pitch one more inning, Morse came back out with his neon orange cleats in the 8th against one of the best setup men in the game. Morse has had two ABs all NLCS and hasn’t played beyond that for more than a month. Of course. Because it’s the Giants. Neshek is nasty, but he hung a slider, and Morse jumped on it, tying the game at 8.
Again, where’s the ball off the seagull for a run?
After a 9th inning that left me guzzling Pepto and wailing on my children, (THANK YOU AFFELDT!), the bottom of the 9th unrolled the carpet to Michael Wacha, last year’s NLCS MVP. However, he hadn’t pitched since September 26, and with Rosenthal in the pen, I thought it to be a curious move in such a high leverage situation, both mentally and physically.
After a Sandoval single and Belt walk with one out, it set the stage for either a) a double play, b) a walk-off 3 error Benny Hill title sequence, c) walk off homer.
HAHAHA go the fuck home, you’re drunk, option c).
Oh, and why don’t you replay this 45 times in honor of Ishikawa’s jersey number
The Giants, who scored 10 runs without a hit over their last 5 games, scored all 6 via the long ball tonight.
The Giants really are trolling the baseball world right now.
A special mid-NLCS episode of the TortureCast finds the Giants and Cardinals knotted at 1 game a piece in this 7 game series. Now, the scene shifts back to our park in China Basin for games 3, 4 and 5. Willie, Ben, Chad and special returning guest, Eric Nathanson, break down games 1 and 2, including what went right (bullpen) and what went wrong (bullpen, BA w/RISP). Although the walk-off HR was soul-crushing for about a minute, we all were inspired by the tenacious Giants coming back throughout the game, including the dramatic 9th inning.
The Giants were considered the 10th seed in the MLB playoffs, yet here they are, demolishing the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals to become one of the “Final Four” in Major League Baseball. Willie, Chad and Eric (@2outhits) discuss the Giants’ chances in the NLCS vs the Cardinals and what makes these teams so special in episode 73 of the TortureCast!
Since we last recorded, the Giants beat the Pirates in the Wild Card game and took a 2-0 lead in the NLDS against Washington. However, as the Giants looked to sweep the Nats with MadBum on the bump today, it didn’t work out, and the Giants move onto Game 4 with a 2-1 lead and Vogey on the mound. Chad drives this podcast solo to talk about how the Giants are playing with house money, and how they might clinch this series before the dreaded game 5 possibility in Washington. Because, no one wants that.
The TortureCast 