Giants' Madison Bumgarner shuts out Pirates

PITTSBURGH -- Madison Bumgarner clutched a bottle of beer in the raucous Giants clubhouse Wednesday night, his clothes still freshly soaked after a champagne shower. Despite the madness around him, it was the first time all night he'd been granted safe haven.

For nine innings in the National League wild-card game, the Giants lefthander faced not only the nine men in the dangerous Pirates lineup, but also the 40,629 black-clad fans bent on making his life miserable.

A year ago, in a similar spot, their taunts and jeers rattled the Reds' Johnny Cueto. So they returned emboldened against Bumgarner, whose sheer brilliance overwhelmed their efforts.

"Playing at home, in front of our fans all the time, it's been sold out since 2010," Bumgarner said after his four-hitter led the Giants to an 8-0 win. "Obviously, not every game is a win or go home. But as far as the crowd noise, that's an everyday game for us."

Well, not quite. After all, it's not every day that shortstop Brandon Crawford can silence a ballpark, as he did with a fourth-inning grand slam off Pirates righty Edinson Volquez.

Nor is it every day that a pitcher can dominate one of the league's best offenses, as Bumgarner did when he struck out 10 in nine innings.

But only a few teams can claim playoff success as a matter of routine, and one of them is the Giants, winners of seven straight elimination games dating to 2012.

"These guys have found a way to do it," said manager Bruce Bochy, who has led the Giants to two world championships. "They have that DNA. And they did it again today."

Their reward awaits Friday in Washington, when the Giants begin the best-of-five NL Division Series against the Nationals.

The Pirates lack that championship pedigree, though they hoped to forge a winning identity this postseason. A year ago, they took the Cardinals to the brink in the NLDS. And to get there, they survived the wild-card game, partly because Cueto wilted in a hostile environment.

At times, Pirates third baseman Josh Harrison remembered sitting in the dugout at PNC Park, unable to hear the crack of the bat. It had been drowned out by the roar of fans that had been freed from 21 seasons of October exile.

One night after Royals fans turned Kauffman Stadium into a revival -- an outpouring that came after their own 29-year playoff drought -- Pirates fans jammed their picturesque ballpark as if to prove they hadn't been spoiled.

In the fourth, they sprang to life. With two strikes, the bases loaded, and Volquez trying desperately to extricate himself from a mess, it's possible that the sound of Crawford's bat meeting a curveball might have been drowned out by fans pushing for an escape act.

There was no disputing, however, the sound of stunned souls that suddenly lost the power of speech.

"Once I step in the box, I don't really focus on it a whole lot," Crawford said. "But in a moment like that, you kind of notice it."

With that, the Giants' oddball season was well on its way to its latest twist. They busted out of the starting blocks as juggernauts, languished in mediocrity for months, then righted themselves in time for the postseason.

As a result, the Pirates shuffled away like their fans, forced to accept a bitter end. Bumgarner insisted on being there, capping his masterpiece with a harmless pop-up from Pittsburgh native Neil Walker. By then, a steady stream of Pirates fans had made their way across the Roberto Clemente Bridge.

They, too, went quietly.

(Editor's note: An earlier version of this story indicated the Pirates played the Dodgers in the 2013 NLDS. They played the Cardinals, which is reflected above.)