http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/sports/baseball/mets-giants-madison-bumgarner-conor-gillaspie.html 2016-10-06 07:22:53 Giants Rely on a Familiar Formula, and a Great Equalizer Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner again showed he owns the postseason, allowing just four hits in a shutout win in the National League wild-card game. === These are the San Francisco Giants. This is what they do. You were expecting something else? The “He did what everybody expected him to do,” Giants first baseman Brandon Belt said. “It’s almost boring. He needs to do something different next time.” Bumgarner’s routine October four-hit shutout ended the Mets’ season, 3-0. All he needed was a run, and it finally came from a journeyman No. 8 hitter, Conor Gillaspie. His three-run, ninth inning homer off Jeurys Familia sent the Giants to Chicago for a division series with the Cubs. The Giants, who had the majors’ best record at the All-Star break, tumbled to 30-42 in the second half. But they got hot at the end, and that was all they needed. “They know where the start line is and they know where the finish line is, and that’s important,” said Larry Baer, the Giants’ chief executive. “We get down in August, we lost some games. Some teams kind of just topple. But these guys have been through it, so they just know what you’ve got to do to get in. Look, we’ve got a long, long, long way, but that part is a big deal — they know the pacing of a championship season.” The Mets now know how the Philadelphia Phillies felt in 2010, when Cody Ross — a waiver-wire afterthought — slew the great Roy Halladay. They know how the St. Louis Cardinals felt in 2012, when Marco Scutaro — playing for his sixth team — batted .500 to beat them for the pennant. And they know how the Cardinals felt again in 2014, when a homer by Travis Ishikawa sent the Giants back to the World Series. Each of those seasons ended with the Giants celebrating on another team’s field: first in Texas, then Detroit and then Kansas City. Bumgarner, always, was a major reason. As they pursue yet another even-year championship, the Giants are using their same formula: an unsung hitter reaching new heights, and Bumgarner adding more gilded text to his Cooperstown plaque. “He doesn’t let anything that’s happening affect the next pitch, and I think that’s what makes him so special,” said Jake Peavy, the veteran Giants starter. “Just the poise and under-controlness, with all that rage and anger and competitive adrenaline throwing — the poise to throw the ball where it’s supposed to be thrown.” For the Mets, the game had echoes of the winner-take-all loss in 2006, to the Cardinals, with Curtis Granderson playing the Endy Chavez role: game-saving catch at the wall, staving off defeat for a few precious innings. That October, Yadier Molina hit the decisive home run. Now, Gillaspie joins the list of Mets villains. Gillaspie, 29, was a first-round pick of the Giants in 2008, another in a line of first-rounders that included Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Bumgarner and Buster Posey. As it turned out, though, Gillaspie was little used by the Giants. He played sparingly and left for the Chicago White Sox in a 2013 trade for a Class A reliever named Jeff Soptic. Gillaspie had two seasons as a regular for the White Sox, then drifted to the Los Angeles Angels and back to the Giants, who signed him as a free agent in February. He was playing on Tuesday because of an injury to Eduardo Nunez, the third baseman the Giants acquired at the trading deadline. With a profile like that, of course Gillaspie came up big. These are the Giants, remember. Bit players of the past return years later — like Ishikawa, the former starter Ryan Vogelsong and now Gillaspie – and still find a way to help. “There’s something they do that we don’t forget,” General Manager Bobby Evans said. “So we want them back.” Bumgarner showed again that he absolutely owns the postseason. Tuesday’s four-hitter was not even his first shutout in the wild-card game; he did it in 2014 in Pittsburgh, on his way to glory in Kansas City. Bumgarner’s last postseason pitch had been a pop out by Salvador Perez to win Game 7 of the World Series. Then he started this game by getting five of the first six batters to pop out, tempting the Mets with fastballs too appetizing to take, but not good enough to drive. Syndergaard, meanwhile, was at his overpowering best, rising to meet the moment, as he had predicted after his start in Miami last week. “I’m always looking forward to the big games,” said Syndergaard, the Mets’ only winning pitcher in the World Series last fall. “Great atmosphere, lots of pressure. I thrive in those kinds of situations.” He was not kidding. By the end of the fifth, Syndergaard had already become the first Mets pitcher with three postseason games of at least eight strikeouts. The first six strikeouts were all on fastballs, from 97 to 99 miles an hour. When he started striking out hitters for the second time, Syndergaard reached for other weapons: a slider finished Angel Pagan in the fifth, and a changeup wiped out Joe Panik. Syndergaard – Thor, to his fans — represented more than a pitching superhero. He was the one remaining pillar of the four who were thought to hold up the franchise. Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz have all succumbed to surgery in a sobering sequel to their World Series run. Not Syndergaard. As the game’s pre-eminent hard-throwing young starter, Syndergaard, 24, seems vulnerable to arm trouble, someday, in this age of the pitching injury. He has already learned to pitch effectively with a bone spur, after a midseason rest. Somehow, like his team, he was still standing in October. Bumgarner, 27, has worked six consecutive seasons of at least 200 innings; this year he had 226 ⅔, a career high in the regular season. His approach was etched in lore in Oct. 2014, after the Giants lost Game 6 of the World Series in Kansas City. Asked how many pitches he might throw if the Giants needed him in Game 7 — on two days’ rest — Bumgarner said 200. The message was clear: Don’t worry about me. I’ve got this. And then he spun five shutout innings to seal the championship. “His focus, his competitiveness – it goes back to high school,” Evans said. “I remember in San Jose, our manager said, ‘I’ve never seen a guy this competitive.’ That’s what he told me. And I’m like, ‘That sounds good.’ He was at A-ball. He hated to lose as much as he liked to win.” Bumgarner was his own closer that night, as he was again on Wednesday. After Gillaspie’s homer, Bumgarner came to bat next — the nominal closer, Sergio Romo, would have the night off. Three harmless fly outs later, the Giants had done what the Giants do. The Mets should not have been surprised – and the Cubs should be terrified.