Scott Miller's Starting 9: Time for Peavy, Hudson to Take Baton from MadBum
SAN FRANCISCO — Peel back the swirling orange towels and the deafening cacophony of AT&T Park, and the raw, naked emotion of a World Series was located squarely in Bruce Bochy's eyes.
Feet up on his desk, cold beer within reach, the manager sat there late the other night and stared straight past Madison Bumgarner in Game 5 toward Jake Peavy starting Game 6 and Tim Hudson Game 7.
I popped into his office, alone, just for a few minutes, and walked out with my most indelible memory yet of what is turning into a fabulous World Series.
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This was hard after Game 3 on Friday night, a tough San Francisco Giants loss, the Kansas City Royals now leading two games to one and the manager fiercely resisting a growing public outcry to move Bumgarner to Game 4 the next day on short rest.
"Damn, man," Bochy said, almost pleading. "He's human.
"How hard are we supposed to ride him?"
Two nights later, the Giants have played this perfectly, doing exactly what they should have done in sticking with Ryan Vogelsong (with Yusmeiro Petit on call) for Game 4, resisting the temptation to use Bumgarner before Game 5 and, now, turning to their Lynyrd Skynyrd playbook for Game 6 and, possibly, Game 7.
"A couple of Alabama boys," Hudson said late Sunday night following the Giants' 5-0 Game 5 win. "We're going to get our Alabama on 'em for a couple of games."
What the Giants need now is somebody other than Bumgarner to pitch a gem, and that starts with Peavy, 33, a native of Mobile, Alabama, on Tuesday. If he can't do it, Hudson, 39, from Phenix City, Alabama, will start the biggest game of his life Wednesday.
"If it goes seven, I'm going to be as prepared as anyone on the field," vowed Hudson, who took a 3-2 loss in Game 3 (5.2 innings pitched, three runs, four hits). "This has been awesome. It's hard to put into words. Things are happening so fast."
Now Bochy's question hangs in the air like plastic covering over clubhouse lockers in anticipation of a champagne celebration.
How hard are the Giants supposed to ride Bumgarner?
Let's just say this: After Bumgarner pitched the first complete-game World Series shutout since Josh Beckett in Game 6 in 2003, after he annihilated a Royals lineup that looked poised to seize a three games to one World Series lead by the third inning of Game 4, both the manager and the ace say he will be available out of the bullpen if the Royals push things to Game 7 on Wednesday.
"Would he be available if that situation came up?" Bochy said late Sunday. "Yeah. He'd have two days off, and he's a strong kid."
Now, with Bumgarner's workload pushing the outer limits at 265 innings pitched (regular and postseason combined in 2014), an astounding increase from 201.1 in 2013, here's the key point from Bochy.
"We wouldn't mind pushing him one time," the manager said. "But the talk about doing it twice, we did have some concern."
Peavy first, and then Hudson if needed, could make it really easy on Bumgarner (not to mention Bochy, pitching coach Dave Righetti and the rest of the Giants) by standing tall in Game 6.
Peavy, who lost a 7-2 Game 2 decision (five innings, six hits, four runs), will be making only his third career World Series start.
"I thought overall his last game, especially the third, fourth and fifth innings, that's the Jake we know," Bochy said. "He's fine. He's healthy, and we're all going to have a hiccup here or there."
Ahem: All of us not named Bumgarner, perhaps.
It is an impossibly high bar the Giants' postseason ace has set. Through 31 career World Series innings, his ERA is 0.29. Among pitchers with at least 25 World Series innings pitched, that's the lowest of all time. Cincinnati's Jack Billingham (0.36, from 1972-76) is second. At this point, we're talking about perhaps the best World Series starter ever.
That the Giants' dynasty is one win away from a third Series title in five seasons is incredibly impressive.
That the dynasty now is in the hands of two veteran starters who were nowhere near the 2010 and 2012 titles is a riveting development.
"This is all new to me," said Hudson, who is in his first World Series after 16 seasons. "This experience is awesome. The fans are amazing. The atmosphere is great.
"I feel like I'm getting another shot at the Fountain of Youth. I've got some emotions flowing over me that I haven't had in a long, long time."
He would absolutely love to start Game 7.
He also would absolutely love to grab hold of his first World Series ring as early as Tuesday.
"I hope I'm doing all of this preparation for nothing," Hudson said. "You've got to be prepared, but I know that my fellow Alabama boy will be ready to go Tuesday. And I'm going to be rooting for him hard in the dugout."
2. Oscar Taveras, In Memoriam
As if we needed yet another cruel reminder of how fragile, circumstantial and precious life is, news from the Dominican Republic arrived here shortly after the first pitch of Game 5 Sunday.
Oscar Taveras, the St. Louis Cardinals' ultra-talented 22-year-old phenom, was killed in an auto accident, along with his girlfriend.
As Game 5 of the World Series played out, you couldn't help but think back to Taveras' Game 2 home run against these Giants in the National League Championship Series.
And you couldn't help but realize: Had the Cardinals found a way to defeat the Giants, maybe Taveras would have been in uniform Sunday, playing in Game 5 of the World Series in St. Louis and nowhere near that beach road in the Dominican Republic on which he took the final drive of his life.
How and why fate operates, when one fleeting moment can instantly and irrevocably alter any one of our lives, remains not only something none of us can know, but the best motivation to live each day—hell, each second—to its fullest.
Word spread quickly, from the press box to the stands to, yes, the dugouts. Giants outfielder Juan Perez was a teammate and friend of Taveras' in the Dominican Winter League and was seen crying in the dugout during the game. He retreated to the clubhouse for a few moments to pull himself together—he said it took him about three innings, actually, to regain his wits—then entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning.
He immediately made a beautiful catch to help preserve the Giants' 2-0 lead and then belted a two-run double in the eighth that missed going over the wall by inches.
Perez, also a Dominican Republic native, met Taveras through Taveras' older brother, Raul Burgos, who was in the Giants system from 2007 to 2009.
"He said, 'My little brother is going to be special,'" Perez said.
And he was. Taveras was one of the brightest lights in an organization that thought so highly of him that the Cards traded Allen Craig to Boston at the July trading deadline to make room for him to play.
Now, an organization that knows death all too well has tragically lost another family member, just like Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock.
"I simply can't believe it," general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement. "I...will forever remember him as a wonderful young man who was a gifted athlete with an infectious love for life who lived every day to the fullest."
Giants outfielder Gregor Blanco noticed early in Game 5 that the emotions were getting to Perez and pulled him aside in the dugout for a brief talk.
"Try to focus on the game," Blanco told Perez. "And then we'll talk about it."
"I said, 'Let's do this,'" Blanco said. "It was not easy for him, but he did it....It's not easy to not think about. I'm so proud of him."
Normally refusing to allow anything to drain attention from the game on the field during the World Series, commissioner Bud Selig took the extraordinarily rare step of issuing a statement in the middle of one of baseball's grandest games.
"With heavy hearts, tonight we play Game Five of the 2014 World Series in the memory of these two young people," Selig said in the statement. "On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of both individuals, as well as to Oscar's teammates and the entire Cardinals' organization."
3. It's a Madd(on), Madd(on), Madd(on) Cubs World
In his first year on the job, Rick Renteria led all MLB managers with 57 challenges this summer during the game's inaugural season of instant replay.
Now, you wonder whether that will be Renteria's lasting legacy as Cubs manager.
Joe Maddon's sudden and stunning resignation as manager of the Tampa Bay Rays not surprisingly has registered sky-high on the Richter scale of wild speculation, and Wrigley Field is the epicenter.
With rumors flying and the roar in Chicago growing at the possibility of Maddon's arrival, the Cubs, unlike the Dodgers and Mets, noticeably have done nothing publicly to shoot down the possibility that Maddon will manage them in 2015.
In fact, sources with knowledge of the Cubs' thinking believe the club very well may move to hire Maddon, who suddenly is a free agent and is said to be seeking a four-year deal worth $20-$25 million.
"It's definitely a shock, seeing him leave Tampa Bay," Royals pitcher James Shields, who played for Maddon in Tampa, told Bleacher Report late Sunday. "He was an icon in Tampa Bay.
"I know the fans and the city loved him, as well as the players. But whether you're a player or a manager in the majors, you've always got to think of yourself and your family first."
Shields, the Game 5 loser here Sunday night, is an impending free agent and will be in the position to think of himself and his family very soon. While he was reluctant to discuss his situation, or the idea of a potential reunion with Maddon in Wrigleyville (yes, that could happen), he was effusive in his praise for his former manager.
"He's got a little bit of new school with an old-school soul," Shields said. "He definitely relates to any type of player."
With an extremely talented nucleus of young players like Anthony Rizzo, Starlin Castro, Javier Baez and Kris Bryant, Cubs president Theo Epstein expects the club to be competitive in 2015, and they very well could contend by 2016. They remain short on pitching but are expected to be heavily involved in the free-agent market this winter, where Shields, Max Scherzer and Jon Lester are the most prized starting pitchers.
Whether Maddon is their first free-agent signing of the winter will remain one of the game's hottest topics until his future is decided. But if the Cubs do decide to make a move, one thing won't change very much:
Who among managers ranked second to Renteria in umpire challenges this season?
Why, Maddon, at 48.
4. Where Is Billy Butler?
With the World Series moving back to Kansas City for Game 6 on Tuesday, one Royal gone AWOL will return: Billy Butler is expected back at designated hitter after getting just one at-bat during the three games in San Francisco.
He struck out against Madison Bumgarner to start the eighth Sunday.
"It's tough, but it is what it is," Butler said. "It's part of the job. It won't affect me in Game 6. I felt pretty good."
While Pablo Sandoval's prospective free agency was a big topic around San Francisco given that the Panda may have been playing his final home games ever at AT&T Park, now Butler moves into the position this week in Kansas City.
"Guys go to free agency every year," Butler said. "You'd love to stay. I've always been a Royal. I'd love to continue to be a Royal."
But at this point: Who knows?
5. Kansas City's Proving Ground I
He made the statement when the Royals led this World Series two games to one.
Now they trail three games to two, but with the final two games scheduled for Kansas City, this World Series likely still has a few twists and turns ahead. Maybe Mike Moustakas will be proven correct when he said the other day, "Pretty soon, people aren't going to be surprised anymore by how good a ballclub we are."
In fact...people should have learned that, oh, much earlier this month.
6. Kansas City's Proving Ground II
It's always easier to shake off a loss when the other guy dominated, and so it was late Sunday with the Royals. In fact, in the immediate aftermath of getting stiff-armed by Madison Bumgarner, Royals manager Ned Yost sounded positively giddy about getting back to Kansas City for Game 6.
"The place is going to be absolutely crazy," Yost said. "We feel good about our matchups. We've got to walk the tightrope now without a net. We fall off and we're dead. But we win Tuesday, nobody's got a net, it's going to be winner take all.
"So we think it's going to be fun. We're looking forward to getting back to our home crowd, where it's going to be absolutely wild and crazy."
7. Juan Marichal, Giant Soothsayer
In the Giants' clubhouse following their 5-0 Game 5 win, the legendary Juan Marichal said he told his son, Juan Antonio, 32, that Madison Bumgarner was going to pitch all nine innings Sunday.
When did Marichal predict this?
"Before the game, during the game and when [closer] Santiago Casilla was in the bullpen," Marichal said. "I told him, 'Don't worry, Casilla is not pitching.'"
Like many old-school pitchers, Marichal shakes his head at the lack of complete games today. And he told a pretty good story about his classic 16-inning duel with the Milwaukee Braves' Warren Spahn on July 2, 1963.
In that game, Marichal threw an astounding 227 pitches and Spahn threw 201.
Marichal said that his manager, Alvin Dark, visited the mound in the ninth inning of what eventually was a game the Giants won 1-0 on a Willie Mays homer.
"Alvin, please let me stay a few more innings. I feel strong," Marichal pleaded with Dark.
In the 14th inning, Marichal said, Dark visited the mound again.
"I said, 'Mr. Dark, do you see that man over there? Warren Spahn is 42. I'm 25. If that man is staying in the game, nobody's taking me out,'" Marichal recalled.
So Dark didn't. And the story of the legendary game lives on.
8. How Rare Are Seven-Game World Series?
Since 2002, there has been only one: In 2011, when St. Louis beat Texas. Chew on that as Game 6 approaches Tuesday night.
9. Wade Davis, Dominator
When Juan Perez belted a two-run double in the eighth inning, it was only the sixth extra-base hit Davis has allowed all season:
Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. He has over two decades of experience covering MLB, including 14 years as a national baseball columnist at CBSSports.com.
Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball @ScottMillerBbl.
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