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Pittsburgh • The San Francisco Giants know what it takes to win this time of year. The Pittsburgh Pirates are still learning.
Madison Bumgarner and Brandon Crawford provided a powerful lesson on the difference in the National League wild-card game.
Bumgarner pitched a four-hitter with 10 strikeouts and Crawford hit the first grand slam by a shortstop in postseason history as the Giants routed the Pirates 8-0 on Wednesday night.
After silencing a black-clad crowd hoping for another Pittsburgh playoff run, San Francisco will visit NL East champion Washington in the best-of-five Division Series beginning Friday.
Crawford's shot over the right-field wall in the fourth inning off Edinson Volquez put the Giants ahead. Bumgarner did the rest as San Francisco won its eighth consecutive postseason game and seventh in a row when facing elimination.
Overpowering one of the NL's best lineups, Bumgarner walked one and threw 79 of 109 pitches for strikes in his latest stellar postseason performance. The big left-hander, who allowed only four singles, has thrown 15 scoreless innings in two World Series starts.
"It's fun," Bumgarner said. "If you're not playing, you can be excited and nervous and all that. But if you're pitching in the game you've got to try to push that all aside and try to make pitches like we did tonight."
Volquez was trying to cap his remarkable comeback season by sending Pittsburgh to the NLDS for the second straight year, but he couldn't match Bumgarner.
The right-hander cruised until the fourth, when a pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases with no outs. Crawford followed with a drive that kept carrying all the way to the seats above the 21-foot high Roberto Clemente wall to silence the largest crowd in the 13-year history of PNC Park. That was more than enough for Bumgarner, who mixed his fastball with a slider the Pirates couldn't seem to figure out. Pittsburgh, which was fourth in the majors in extra-base hits this season, rarely hit the ball hard.
Bumgarner was helped by his defense, too. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval — all 245 pounds of him — flipped over the railing in front of the Pittsburgh dugout to track down a foul popup off the bat of Russell Martin.
Sandoval landed on his feet, a perfect symbol of San Francisco's seemingly endless resiliency when the calendar flips to October.
Back in the playoffs after winning the World Series in 2010 and 2012, the Giants are looking to continue their every-other-year success.
Pittsburgh, on the other hand, was unable to duplicate last year's victory over Cincinnati in the wild-card game that followed a 21-year playoff drought. Playing before raucous crowds at PNC Park, the Pirates pushed St. Louis to a decisive Game 5 before losing their NLDS.
This year, Pittsburgh went 17-9 in September while taking the Cardinals to the final day of the season in an attempt to win the NL Central.
The chase included a decision to start budding ace Gerrit Cole in the regular-season finale in the hopes of catching the Cardinals and avoiding the wild-card game. —
Giants 8, Pirates 0
San Francisco AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
G.Blanco cf 4 1 0 0 1 0 .000
Panik 2b 5 0 3 0 0 0 .600
Posey c 5 1 2 1 0 0 .400
Sandoval 3b 4 2 2 0 1 1 .500
Arias 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 —-
Pence rf 4 2 1 0 1 0 .250
Belt 1b 3 1 2 3 2 0 .667
B.Crawford ss 5 1 1 4 0 2 .200
Ishikawa lf 2 0 0 0 1 1 .000
1-J.Perez pr-lf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Bumgarner p 4 0 0 0 0 3 .000
Totals 37 8 11 8 6 7
Pittsburgh AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
J.Harrison 3b 4 0 2 0 0 1 .500
Mercer ss 4 0 0 0 0 2 .000
A.McCutchen cf 3 0 0 0 1 1 .000
R.Martin c 4 0 1 0 0 0 .250
S.Marte lf 4 0 1 0 0 1 .250
N.Walker 2b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .000
Gab.Sanchez 1b 3 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Snider rf 2 0 0 0 0 2 .000
J.Hughes p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —-
LaFromboise p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —-
Holdzkom p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —-
a-Morel ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Melancon p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —-
Volquez p 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Ju.Wilson p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —-
Tabata rf 2 0 0 0 0 1 .000
Totals 32 0 4 0 1 10
San Francisco 000 401 210 — 8 11 2
Pittsburgh 000 000 000 — 0 4 0
a-fouled out for Holdzkom in the 8th.
1-ran for Ishikawa in the 6th.
E—Arias (1), B.Crawford (1).
LOB—San Francisco 8, Pittsburgh 6. HR—B.Crawford (1), off Volquez. RBIs—Posey (1), Belt 3 (3), B.Crawford 4 (4).
Runners left in scoring position—San Francisco 4 (Ishikawa, G.Blanco, B.Crawford, Sandoval) Pittsburgh 3 (S.Marte, A.McCutchen 2). RISP—San Francisco 4 for 11 Pittsburgh 0 for 4.
Runners moved up—Mercer, R.Martin. GIDP—B.Crawford.
DP—Pittsburgh 1 (N.Walker, Mercer, Gab.Sanchez).
San Francisco IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Bumgarner W, 1-0
9 4 0 0 1 10 0.00
Pittsburgh IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Volquez L, 0-1 5 5 5 5 3 3 9.00
Ju.Wilson 1⁄3 1 0 0 1 1 0.00
J.Hughes 1 3 2 2 1 1 18.00
LaFromboise 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
Holdzkom 1 2 1 1 1 1 9.00
Melancon 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.00
Volquez pitched to 1 batter in the 6th.
Inherited runners-scored—Ju.Wilson 1-1, J.Hughes 2-0, LaFromboise 2-0. WP—Ju.Wilson.
Umpires—Home, Brian Gorman First, Joe West Second, Mark Wegner Third, Paul Emmel Right, Andy Fletcher Left, Doug Eddings.
T—3:12. A—40,629 (38,362). —
Playoffs schedule
WILD CARD
American League
Tuesday
• Kansas City 9, Oakland 8, 12 innings
Wednesday
• San Francisco 8, Pittsburgh 0
AL DIVISION SERIES
Baltimore vs. Detroit
Thursday
• Detroit (Scherzer 18-5) at Baltimore (Tillman 13-6), 3:37 p.m., TBS
Los Angeles Angels vs. Kansas City
Thursday
• Kansas City (Vargas 1-10) at L.A. (Weaver 18-9), 7:07 p.m., TBS
NL DIVISION SERIES
San Francisco vs. Washington
Friday
• San Fran at Washington, 1:07 p.m., FS1
Los Angeles Dodgersvs. St. Louis
Friday
• St. Louis (Wainwright 20-9) at L.A. (Kershaw 21-3), 4:37 p.m., FS1