Madison Bumgarner cemented his legacy in the 2014 World Series and likely will go down as his generation's best big-game pitcher. Two years before that fateful performance over the Kansas City Royals, the ace was lost.
Then 23 years old, Bumgarner had given up four runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings in Game 2 of the NLDS and dropped the Giants into a two-games-to-none hole against the Cincinnati Reds. Bumgarner came back to kick off the NLCS, but he was knocked out in the fourth and charged with six earned runs in a 6-4 loss to the St.