Madison Bumgarner Reflects on San Francisco Giants World Series Title in 2014

Former San Francisco Giants star Madison Bumgarner recently reflected on the team's 2014 World Series title.

Aug 10, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Former San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner speaks during a ceremony celebrating the Giants' 2014 World Series championship team before the game against the Detroit Tigers at Oracle Park. / Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports

This weekend was a special one for the San Francisco Giants and their fans. They celebrated the 10th anniversary of the team’s World Series victory over the Kansas City Royals in 2014. That meant plenty of people from the team coming back, including star pitcher Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner’s heroics will forever live on in Giants lore. After throwing a complete game shutout in Game 5, a 5-0 victory for San Francisco, he closed out Game 7 by firing five more shutout innings to help secure the victory.

It was an impressive feat as Bumgarner threw 117 pitches in Game 5 before coming back three days later and throwing 68 more. It was something that he reflected on Friday ahead of the weekend festivities at Oracle Park.

“I just let him [manager Bruce Bochy] know that I could, I let him know that I could and it wasn’t trying to be a tough guy or whatever,” Bumgarner said Friday. “I would have done that, too. For whatever reason, at that time of my career I was locked in as good as I could be and the body felt good and I was able to recover. When everything is flowing and going right and (there) are a lot of more stress-free innings and stuff, that helps a guy be able to bounce back and recover. I felt great the whole postseason.”

He certainly pitched as well as he felt. He took home the MVP award for the World Series after being named MVP of the National League Championship Series. Both were well-earned.

That postseason, Bumgarner made seven appearances. He pitched 52.2 innings, giving up only seven runs, six of which were earned, on just 28 hits and six walks. That comes out to a 1.03 ERA, as Bumgarner also struck out 45 batters with opponents struggling to make contact against him.

“People talk about the zone, that was it,” Bumgarner said on his performance in the 2014 MLB playoffs. “I didn’t have it before then and I didn’t have it after then. That was the spot for me.”

The 52.2 innings that he pitched are a postseason record. No one has gotten close to it, as Cliff Lee in 2009 with 40.1 is the only other pitcher who is in the top 10 in recent history.

Given how pitchers are handled in the current MLB, it is hard to envision anyone breaking Bumgarner’s record. Complete games are rare nowadays, especially in the postseason.

“Who knows what’s going to happen. I could never say never,” Bumgarner said. “Who knows what the game is going to evolve into, but I would say it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s not going to happen in the near future the way it’s going.”

The 2014 World Series celebration was a joyous one, reminiscing of the last title the franchise won. San Francisco won 3-1 Saturday afternoon, continuing their hot streak and climbing closer to a playoff spot in the NL.