SAN FRANCISCO – As Giants manager Bruce Bochy watched the World Series come to a stirring conclusion Sunday night, he felt two overriding emotions:
Happiness for the Kansas City Royals. And gratitude for Madison Bumgarner.
“That’s what it took for us to beat them (last year),” Bochy said. “That was the only way to beat them.”
No, the New York Mets did not have a version of Bumgarner in the series that ended with the Royals’ ninth-inning comeback and 12th-inning victory in Game 5 Sunday. The Mets, for all the young fire in their rotation, did not have a pitcher capable of taking the ball on two days of rest and pouring five relief innings down a funnel.