Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The Texas Rangers might demand a birth certificate. Suuuure, he's 21. Suuuure this is his first postseason. Madison Bumgarner looks as if he has done this a thousand times before.
But no, this was Bumgarner's first World Series start, and even if the Rangers doubt his age, they cannot question his stuff, not after he pitched the Giants to the brink of a championship in Game 4 Sunday night.
In a 4-0 victory, the Giants' second shutout of the Series, Bumgarner held Texas to three hits in eight innings, matching the best start of his career. He threw eight shutout innings, the first pitcher to do so in the Series since St. Louis' Chris Carpenter in Game 3 in 2006 against Detroit.
Furthermore, the 21-year-old became the fourth-youngest starter to win in the World Series. His night, and perhaps his rookie season, ended with a looking strikeout of Game 3 hitting star Mitch Moreland. Brian Wilson pitched the ninth.
Bumgarner had some power to back him up from an offense that has outhomered Texas' highly regarded mashers 6-2. Aubrey Huff and Buster Posey each hit his first postseason homer, Huff with one aboard. In between, Andres Torres doubled home Edgar Renteria in the seventh, when each had his third hit of the game.
The Giants secured the one win they truly needed in the three games at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and lead the Series three games to one. Since the American and National Leagues began knocking heads in 1903, 35 of the 41 teams to take a 3-1 lead captured the title.
The Giants can celebrate San Francisco's first Series win on this field tonight in the Game 1 rematch pitting Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee. Even if the Rangers get the Series back to AT&T Park, the Giants would have two more chances to win the decisive game.
Pitching without hesitation or wasted effort, Bumgarner suffocated a good Texas lineup with all his pitches working. He did not allow a runner to reach second base until the seventh inning and ended two mini-rallies with double plays.
Bumgarner also struck out Vlad Guerrero three times, twice retiring him on changeups that drew awful, half-hearted swings.
The Giants forced Texas starter Tommy Hunter to throw 83 pitches in four innings, but their take was only two runs.
They scored in the third when Torres hit a leadoff double, a ball that hit first base, and Huff, the designated hitter, hit a two-run, two-area-code drive down the right-field line well over the fence, giving the Giants their first lead in Texas, 2-0.
Huff went deep in his 51st postseason at-bat. Tack on the end of the regular season and his drought had totaled 76 at-bats.
Torres hit his RBI double in the seventh against Darren Oliver. Sidewinder Darren O'Day, who got Posey to ground out in a key situation in Game 3, surrendered the rookie catcher's homer in the eighth, a high fly that would not stop carrying until it reached the grassy knoll in center field.
With eight strikeouts in nine Series at-bats, Pat Burrell found himself on the bench for Game 4, replaced by Nate Schierholtz. Also, Travis Ishikawa played first base with Huff the DH, a role he knew well in the American League.
Ishikawa and Schierholtz had not started together since July 21 and totaled 15 at-bats off the bench in the first 13 postseason games. Now, each was making his first start in the World Series.
Manager Bruce Bochy said he decided on Ishikawa at first after Game 3 and told him. He slept on the Burrell decision and did not write Schierholtz into the lineup until Sunday.
"I got excited," Ishikawa said. "When I first heard, I thought it was great. It wasn't until I got to the field today that it really hit me this was a World Series game and I'll be living out every childhood fantasy that a kid has of playing major-league baseball. It'll be tough to control my excitement. I've got to find a way to do it."
Freddy Sanchez went hitless at the plate but contributed in the field.
He played highlight-reel bingo in the second inning, which ended when he soared into the air to catch Jeff Francoeur's scorching liner. Sanchez was lurching backward, too, and did a reverse somersault as he landed.
In fact, Sanchez could have produced a two-volume set of highlights in this game. He nearly made a fantastic play to prevent Texas' first hit, a Michael Young grounder. When Bumgarner deflected Josh Hamilton's subsequent grounder to Sanchez, he grabbed it and deftly tagged Young going by.
After Bumgarner struck out Guerrero with a changeup, Sanchez took a short-hopped throw from Buster Posey and tagged Hamilton on steal attempt.
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