2014 National League Wild Card Game

2014 National League Wild Card Game

San Francisco Giants 88 - 74 in the NL	1 - 0 Series Summary	Pittsburgh Pirates 88 - 74 in the NL

Overview[edit]

The Teams[edit]

Managers: Pirates: Clint Hurdle | Giants: Bruce Bochy

Pirates

Giants

Umpires[edit]

Brian Gorman, Joe West, Mark Wegner, Paul Emmel, Doug Eddings and Andy Fletcher

Series results[edit]

NLWC: San Francisco Giants vs. Pittsburgh Pirates[edit]

Game	Score	Date	Starters	Time (ET)
1	San Francisco Giants 8 Pittsburgh Pirates 0	October 1	Madison Bumgarner (1-0) Edinson Volquez (0-1)	8:07 pm

Results[edit]

Game 1 @ PNC Park[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Giants	0	0	0	4	0	1	2	1	0	8	11	2
Pirates	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
WP: Madison Bumgarner (1-0), LP: Edinson Volquez (0-1)
Home Runs: SF - Brandon Crawford (1)

Attendance: 40,629

The San Francisco Giants won the 2014 National League Wild Card Game thanks to a great performance by starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner and a big hit that broke the Pittsburgh Pirates' back after a tight first few innings. In the end the Giants were winners by K.O., with a final score of 8-0.

Hosting the Wild Card Game for the second straight year, the Pirates tagged the latest of their pitching reclamation projects, Edinson Volquez, to take the mound. Coming off a difficult season in 2013, he had renewed with success while pitching in Pittsburgh, following similar success stories by the likes of Francisco Liriano and A.J. Burnett in previous years. His opponent, Bumgarner, had lots of postseason experience, having been a key part of the Giants' World Champion teams in 2010 and 2012, and was now the team's uncontested pitching ace, following a season-ending injury to Matt Cain and inconsistency from Tim Lincecum. In terms of starting line-up, the Giants were missing two of their starting outfielders for most of the year, CF Angel Pagan and LF Mike Morse, who were replaced by Gregor Blanco and Travis Ishikawa, respectively; for their part, the Pirates were able to field their preferred line-up.

Both starting pitchers got off to solid starts, with Bumgarner only allowing a single to C Russell Martin through the first three innings, while Volquez allowed a pair of singles and a walk. Thus, the game was still scoreless in the top of the 4th, when Volquez gave them the opening they needed. 3B Pablo Sandoval and RF Hunter Pence led off the inning with back-to-back singles, and 1B Brandon Belt drew a walk to load the bases. Up stepped SS Brandon Crawford, and he crushed a pitch into the right field seats at PNC Park for a grand slam, incidentally the first ever hit by any shortstop in postseason play. The crowd immediately sensed that the game was over at that point, given the steep slope to climb against a starter who was dealing. Volquez recovered enough to retire the next six batters he faced, but the damage was already done.

The Giants padded their lead against the Pirates' bullpen, with a run in the 6th, a pair in the 7th and one more in the 8th. Belt drove in three of those runs, the first on a single against Justin Wilson in the 6th that drove in Pence from second base; Pence had reached on a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch by Wilson. The next inning, with Jared Hughes pitching, the Giants again loaded the bases with none out, as they had done in the 4th, with singles by 2B Joe Panik and C Buster Posey and a walk to Sandoval. Pence grounded to second to force Panik at home, but Belt followed with a two-run single to center that made the score 7-0. San Francisco added a final run in the 8th when Blanco drew a two-out walk against Indy League alumni John Holdzkom, followed by singles by Panik and Posey. Meanwhile, Bumgarner never showed any sign of weakness; the Bucs did put two men on with one out in the bottom of the 8th, on an error and a single, but Bumgarner got out unscathed and then returned to retire the Pirates in order in the bottom of the 9th. He ended up pitching a four-hit shutout, allowing a single walk while striking out 10, and needing only 109 pitches. The Pirates never had a chance.