Madison Bumgarner wins World Series MVP

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner has won the 2014 World Series MVP and it's likely it came in blowout fashion.

After dominating the Royals in Game 1 and throwing a shutout in Game 5, Bumgarner finished the Royals in Game 7 with five shutout innings, allowing only two hits while striking out four and allowing no walks. He earned a save for his efforts.

"He came back out on short rest and dominated," said Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer. "You just have to tip your cap to him. He's a bulldog out there, he's a workhorse."

For the series as a whole, Bumgarner was 2-0 with the Game 7 save while allowing only nine hits, one run and one walk in 21 innings of work while striking out 17. So he had an ERA of 0.43 and a WHIP of 0.48 with a K:BB ratio of 17:1.

"He got it done. He did a great job against us," said Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain. "My hat's off to him."

In an era of hyperbole and overreaction, Bumgarner's performance in this series needed no beautification. It truly was one of the greatest World Series pitching performances. In World Series history, Bumgarner just became the sixth man to pitch at least five innings in three different World Series games while allowing no more than one earned run per contest. The others: Christy Mathewson, Sandy Koufax, Waite Hoyt, George Earnshaw and Stan Coveleski. Four of those cases came in 1930 or earlier, with Koufax doing it in 1965.

Speaking of Koufax, he had a 0.38 ERA in 24 innings that World Series. Again, Bumgarner had a 0.43 ERA in 21 innings. Not quite as great, but still in the conversation.

How about this? No reliever has gone at least five scoreless innings in relief since 1984 and it's only happened now 19 times in World Series history.

You could argue he carried the Giants, as he completely took over three of the four games they won.

In that sense, although both Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence had great series, this award was a "no-brainer," which were Royals manager Ned Yost's exact words when learning Bumgarner won the series MVP. He was simply on another level in this series and there was no disputing this one.

Or, to put it more succinctly, Brandon Belt offered up a quick-hitting bit of praise:

"He's just a badass."

Well said.