San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner throws a pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning of the 2014 National League Wild Card playoff baseball game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports
Madison Bumgarner threw a four-hit shutout and Brandon Crawford belted a grand slam to lift San Francisco to an 8-0 win over Pittsburgh Wednesday in the National League Wild Card game.
The Giants have now won seven straight playoff elimination games.
The blowout lacked the drama of Tuesday’s American League wild-card game between Kansas City and Oakland, in which the Royals rallied from behind for a 12th-inning win.
But with the victory the Giants move on to face the National League East division champion Washington Nationals in a best-of-five Division Series, with game one scheduled for Friday in Washington.
Bumgarner struck out 10 and Crawford homered with the bases loaded and no outs in the fourth inning off Edinson Volquez—silencing the crowd of 40,629 at the Pirates’ PNC Park.
Crawford became the first shortstop in Major League Baseball history to hit a post-season grand slam. And Bumgarner became the first Giants starter to throw a post-season shutout since Tim Lincecum blanked the Atlanta Braves in the 2010 NL division series.
“It’s hard to put together a better game than what we just had,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy.
San Francisco loaded the bases in the fourth on singles by Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence and a walk to Brandon Belt.
Crawford then lofted Volquez’s 1-2 pitch into the right-field stands for the first post-season home run of his career, giving San Francisco a 4-0 lead.
“Those three guys ahead of me getting on was huge. It set up the whole inning,” Crawford said. “You get a little confidence when those three guys get on.
“I only wanted to get one (run). Fortunately I got four. When someone like (Bumgarner) gets four runs, it’s lights-out.”
Volquez hadn’t given up more than three runs in any of his last 12 starts, going 5-0 with 15 earned runs allowed and 64 strikeouts in 76 innings since his last loss July 21 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. “It was unbelievable,” Bumgarner said of Crawford’s homer. “To go from a nothing-nothing ballgame to we had a chance to score there, to him doing that ... that was huge for us.”
Belt drove in three runs with a run-batted-in single in the sixth inning and a two-run single in the seventh. Buster Posey added two hits, including an eighth-inning RBI single. Bumgarner, meanwhile, was never in trouble. The left-hander issued only one walk, throwing 79 of his 109 pitches for strikes.
Do or die
The Pirates, who ranked fourth in the National league in scoring, moved only three runners into scoring position on the night. “Everything was really feeling good early on and throughout the whole game,” Bumgarner said.
Bochy said his team knows “there’s a lot of work ahead of us.”
“We’re going to be facing a very good team coming up. We know that. All we wanted was a chance. That’s all you can ask. (The wild-card game) is a do-or-die situation, but these guys have been here before.”
The other National League division series also begins today, with the NL Central division champions St. Louis hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers, winners of the NL West division crown.
The winners of the two division series will play in the National League Championship Series for the chance to take on the American League champions in the World Series.
