Remember who got the game winning hit in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series? It’s one thing that is not often discussed because Jack Morris pitched a game so great that people cannot shake the idea that he should be a Hall of Famer.
In the other dugout was a young right-hander named John Smoltz who matched Morris pitch for pitch. There were pivotal plays in that game you can point to as to why the Twins ultimately won. However, the biggest reason was Morris was able to go the distance and the young Smoltz was only able to go 7.1 innings.
Last night wasn’t the World Series. However, it was a winner-take-all game featuring just a tremendous pitching match-up. The Giants had the grizzled veteran, Madison Bumgarner, who has laid claim to the best active postseason pitcher, if not all time. The Mets were sending out Noah Syndergaard, who throws harder than anyone in baseball and is coming off a Cy Young caliber award season. Simply put, you do not get better than this.
Bumgarner and Syndergaard were even more dominant than you would’ve thought they could be. Combined, the two aces threw 227 pitches. Only six of those pitches would result in base hits. The two would combine for 16 strikeouts with just five walks. No one would reach third base against them let alone score a run. In July, this is a game that is game you would call an instant classic. In the postseason, this is a game for the ages.
Syndergaard had a no-hitter through 5.2 innings. He struck out 10 Giants batters. Overall, he pitched seven dominant innings allowing just two hits and three walks. Through those seven innings, he was the better pitcher. The best hitter in the Giants’ lineup, Buster Posey, would describe Syndergaard as “unhittable, almost unreal.” (northjersey.com). Eventual hero, Conor Gillaspie, described Syndergaard as having “some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen.”
Syndergaard became just the third Mets pitcher to go at least seven innings while allowing two or fewer hits in a postseason game. The two previous pitchers were Bobby Jones in Game 4 of 2000 NLDS vs the Giants and Jon Matlack in Game 2 of the 1973 NLCS against the Reds.
As Terry Collins said after the game, “I’ve got to rank this one tonight as good as any under the circumstances. He stepped up when we needed him. He stepped up last year when we needed him. He’s grown so much, even though he’s still very, very young, he’s grown so much and matured so much as a pitcher. He’s going to be really, really good.”
Utlimately, that’s how Bumgarner won. He didn’t beat Syndergaard; he just outlasted him. A big reason why is Bumgarner needed just 21 pitches to get through the first three innings. For some pitchers, they need that many just to get through one inning. To get through three innings with that few pitches is extraordinary. It was a huge reason why Bumgarner needed only 118 pitches to finish the complete game shut out.
With Bumgarner outlasting Syndergaard, the Giants lineup was rejuvenated. With Syndergaard leaving Posey talked about how confident the Giants were saying, “We just knew in the next half-inning we’d still have a chance.”
They loaded the bases in the eighth before Addison Reed got a huge inning ending strikeout of Hunter Pence. Then in the ninth, Brandon Crawford got the rally started with a leadoff double off Jeurys Familia. It set the stage for Familia having his Alejandro Pena moment giving up the game-winning hit to Gillaspie.
Just like the 1991 World Series, it was the team that had their dominant starter go the distance that got the victory. Just like Smoltz, Syndergaard was better than Bumgarner in every single facet of the game last night save one. That one, going deep into the game, was the main difference between the two, and ultimately, it is the reason why the Giants are playing in the NLDS.
In the end, Mets and Giants played baseball at the highest of levels yesterday and put on an display as to what makes baseball truly great. Neither team deserved to lose that game. And yet, a game like this also shows how cruel baseball can be. Despite the Mets having the better pitcher and them having outplayed the Giants for seven innings, the Mets would wind up losing a heartbreaking game in front of a raucous Citi Field.
Syndergaard put it best when he said:
Baseball has a way of ripping your ❤️ out, stabbing it, putting it back in your chest, then healing itself just in time for Spring Training.
— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) October 6, 2016
Looking at the scorecard, it’ll say the Giants beat the Mets in the Wild Card Game. It’ll show there were two great pitching performances. Looking up and down the big names and potential Hall of Famers on both sides of the equation, you’ll notice it was Gillaspie, who was only playing in the game due to an Eduardo Nunez injury, getting the game winning hit. It was as shocking as it was beautiful (unless you’re a Mets fan).
Overall, the real winner of this game was the game of baseball itself. It showed everyone how great it can be while also showing how cruel it can be. Last night’s game, just like that World Series game 25 years ago, showed that when baseball is at it’s best there is nothing better.
