ST. LOUIS — You can blame it on Matt Carpenter’s fielding error, or Kolten Wong’s inability to turn the double play, or even the call at first that Mike Matheny unsuccessfully challenged, but Carpenter knows exactly who’s to blame for the Cardinals falling a game down in the best-of-seven NLCS.
Madison Bumgarner.
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“He was throwing the ball really well,” the Cardinals third baseman said. “He did a really good job of mixing his pitches throughout the lineup. The way he was attacking guys the first time through would be different the second time through, and even the third time through. He did a good job.”
Bumgarner pitched into the eighth inning, racking up seven strikeouts, and setting a new major league record for most consecutive postseason shutout innings pitched on the road with 26 2/3. After three starts in the 2014 playoffs, the Giants’ ace has a postseason ERA of 0.76. In an October marked by disappointing performances from other starters, including the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw and the Orioles’ Chris Tillman, Bumgarner has emerged as the dominant pitcher of the postseason.
“His command was really good tonight,” Carpenter noted after Saturday’s game. “He was able to use his heater on both sides of the plate and bounce his curveball to lefties when he wanted to, and he had a pretty good feel for that cutter. He also threw some change-ups that I didn’t even know he had.”
Cardinals outfielder Randal Grichuk, who went 0-for-4 in Saturday’s game, agreed that Bumgarner made it nearly impossible for the Cardinals to get any sort of offense started. “He kind of slings it at you,” Grichuk noted. “It’s tough to pick it up out of his hand with that crossfire.”
Obviously, the Cardinals need to figure something out for Game 2.
“At the end of the day you can’t win if you don’t score any runs,” Carpenter noted. “That was really the difference in the game.”
The Cardinals have scored only one run in their last four postseason games against the Giants, a fact they hope to change tonight when they face Jake Peavy.
“We weren’t able to do anything,” Carpenter admitted. “When you’re facing [an ace], one run can be the difference in a game. He did a good job of keeping us from scoring any runs.”
Cardinals’ manager Mike Matheny didn’t beat around the bush either: “Madison Bumgarner was good today."
Yes. Yes he was.
Erin Faulk is a documentary filmmaker and writer based in the Los Angeles area, best known for a unique brand of storytelling on Twitter. Examples of her work have appeared on Slate, Gawker, Jezebel and other sites.