After watching Madison Bumgarner dominate the Kansas City Royals in Game 5 of the World Series Sunday night, the talk of who should win the National League's Cy Young award should shift dramatically from Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers to the San Francisco Giants' ace left-hander.
Even when Kershaw had lost two games to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL's Division Series earlier this month, the 20-game winner nearly had the prestigious award locked up.
But now that Bumgarner is 4-0 in the postseason and on a team that is one win away from its third world championship in five years, many in baseball are calling his performance Sunday one of the best in World Series history.
*****
add World Series: Of the four California teams that had a chance of making it to the World Series this season, the Giants were probably the least likely team to make the Fall Classic, behind the Dodgers, the Angels and the Athletics, given the fact that they lost six straight games at the end of the regular season and had to play at Pittsburgh to qualify as the league's Wild Card entry. But Bumgarner beat the Pirates to put the Giants in the NLDS against Washington.
*****
last add World Series: It wouldn't be out of line to think about the Giants as starting a dynasty, at least in the National League. If they win one of the next two games in Kansas City, the championship will be their third in five years. No team has done that since the mid-1940s when it was accomplished by the St. Louis Cardinals. And the splashy debut of second baseman Joe Panik on baseball's biggest stage shows how well-developed San Francisco's minor league system is.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment