It was an inauspicious beginning. Madison Bumgarner was having one of those starts where he was catching too much of the strike zone. The Dodgers were hitting him. Four of the first five Dodgers got a hit, and the only reason things weren’t worse was because Gorkys Hernandez can throw a baseball. The Dodgers were up, 2-0, the Cardinals and Mets had already won, and the collapse was imminent.
Be honest with yourself. If the game had finished by that score, would you have been surprised? Would you be at home right now, cartoon birds and stars orbiting your head, wondering what happened?