LOS ANGELES – Madison Bumgarner was nowhere near a Game 7 as he stepped and loaded and flung his left arm across his body in the Giants’ 2-1 victory Saturday night.
Dutifully note this, too: he faced a Dodgers lineup with bloodshot eyes after they had clinched the NL West one night earlier. Dave Roberts could have slipped himself in the batting order as a player-manager, for all that was at stake, and nobody would’ve raised a fuss.
But a cauldron is still a cauldron. Adrenaline is still adrenaline. And, most important of all, after months of uncertainty and quietly acknowledged embarrassment and his shoulder in a sling, Bumgarner will go into the winter knowing that he is still Bumgarner.