by Michael Duca

KANSAS CITY–It’s the best of all the three World Series that I have been able to cover with the San Francisco Giants better than 2010 and 2012. There is simply no way to discribe what we just witnessed out here at Kaufman Field in KC. It was the best pitching performance in the world by a Giants reliever here in game seven by Madison Bumgarner in a century.

The guy who comes closest to Bumgarner’s performance is former and late New York Giant Christy Mattewson who pitched for the team in 1900-1916. Mattewson did it with a dead ball. In the live ball era this was the best ever with three victories on the road who does that. You got to give credit to the Giants opponents the Royals who forced a game seven on Tuesday night in game six the Royals took no prisioners with a 10-0 victory.

The Royals were a very formable opponent against the Giants and were a very, very good team. They were a solid team, they didn’t get too shook up, they gave no holes to exploit, this was a team that had to go out and outlast them. The Royals will be back and this is a fine young team. There were about 5,000 Royals fans who remained after their team loss and they sat behind the Royals dugout still cheering their team on.

This was a historic night here in game seven in the 139 year history of the New York and San Francisco Giants this is the first time that they have won a decisive game seven in the World Series. This was going to be a tough one because five of the first six games were blow outs it was crystal clear that game seven was going to be a nail biter right down to the last pitch and indeed it was as the Giants won this one by one run 3-2 there was never a doubt.

Bumgarner’s relief performance was unreal he went five innings surrendered only two hits, shut out the Royals to the end of the game, slammed the door and if this doesn’t cement his reputation as the best World Series pitcher in the modern era what does? He’s absolutely unflappable it’s not that he ignores pressure. Mad Bum was undescribable he was unbelievable to watch.

On Bumgarner there is not much to say he threw two complete games and in this game seven in relief for five innings and for the total series he gave only one home run, 14 hits, and three walks. He was incredible and Bumgarner throughout this whole World Series was lights out. It’s just unbelievable to see someoene do what he did in three games that he pitched in in the modern era.

I’ve been to all three of the Giants World Series in the last six years and I have to say it never gets old, it just gets better and better. The highlight of this series was when Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval made the last out but also who tagged up a on a fly ball going from second to third to set up the game winning run. Everyone will forget that but it was a gutsy play and it was a play that showed why the Giants won this World Series.

Michael Duca had covered the San Francisco Giants all season, post season and the World Series for http://www.sportsradioservice.com. Special thanks to our staff of beat writers who covered the Giants for 2014 Jeremy Kahn, Jeremy Harness, Morris Phillips, Matt Harrington, Jeff Hall, Kahlil Najar, Phillip Torres, and Joe Lami.

photo credit: sf gate