Why is Madison Bumgarner a mean machine in the Postseason?
Well I can tell you why, Madison Bumgarner has been dominated in the Postseason for the Giants. He finished the regular season 15-9 with 2.74 E.R.A. Bumgarner worked a complete-game four-hitter Wednesday in the Giants' 3-0 wild-card victory over the New York Mets at Citi Field. He has now spent 23 innings on the mound in winner-take-all baseball games. And he has hung a zero on the scoreboard in all 23 of them. Yep, that would be a record.He has thrown complete-game shutouts in two of those games -- the 2014 wild-card game and this one. Ready for the complete list of all pitchers in history who have thrown multiple shutouts in winner-take-all postseason games? Here it comes: There is Madison Bumgarner. ... And, well, that's it.
Bumgarner has now made 13 postseason starts in his career. He forgot to allow a run in six of them. You should know that only one other pitcher in history has made six scoreless postseason starts over the course of his career. And that was Tom Glavine. Who made nearly three times as many starts (35) as Bumgarner has made. He threw 119 pitches and gave up only four hits in lowering his career postseason ERA on the road to 0.50 -- three earned runs in 53? innings. His overall postseason record improved to 8-3 with a 1.94 ERA and three shutouts -- only Christy Mathewson, who pitched back when they would use like one ball the entire game, has more, with four. Koufax, Gibson, Smoltz, Rivera, Schilling. It seems we can add Bumgarner to the short list of the best postseason pitchers of all time. In case you had some doubts. Bumgarner has six scoreless starts in the postseason, tied for most ever. Obviously, pitchers in the pre-wild card era didn't have the same number of opportunities, but Bumgarner has done this in only 13 career starts. Tom Glavine had six scoreless starts -- in 35 outings. Roger Clemens had five -- in 34 starts. "Bum did his thing," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
