Bumgarner's October masterpiece

ByJAYSON STARK
October 2, 2014, 2:43 AM

— -- PITTSBURGH -- Well, just as we all expected, a dominant left-hander from the San Francisco Bay Area headed for the mound in a humongous postseason game this week and wouldn't let his team go home.

Except it wasn't Jon Lester, ladies and gentlemen. It was  Madison K. Bumgarner, of that other team in the Bay Area, those San Francisco Giants. Maybe Billy Beane should have traded for him.

There would be no wild and wacky 9-8 games in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. How could there be? Madison Bumgarner was pitching.

He ended the magical season of the Pittsburgh Pirates with an 8-0, four-hit, 10-whiff shutout in the National League wild-card game. And now, in your all-time ranks of pitchers who have spun a shutout, with double-digit strikeouts, in a winner-take-all postseason baseball game, the list looks like this:

  • Sandy Koufax in 1965.
  • Justin Verlander in 2012.
  • Madison Bumgarner on an unforgettable Wednesday night in Pittsburgh.

How about that?