Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2014 Giants land in this spot?
The 2014 Giants had an average lineup. The 2014 Giants had an average pitching staff. They won only 88 games in the regular season, and were probably lucky to do that given they outscored their opponents by all of 51 runs. And yet, they won the World Series. How? You can find the answer in three months.
After winning the season opener in March, the Giants went 16-11 in April. In May, San Francisco went 20-9, bringing their record to 37-20. After defeating the Mets on June 8, they were a season-high 22 games over .500, with a 43-21 record, and were 10 games up in the NL West.
Everything then fell apart.
For the rest of June, the Giants went 4-15 and were outscored by 37 runs. A 12-14 July followed, with San Francisco outscored by seven runs. August and September were better — 16-12 and 13-12 — but not exactly reassuring. The Giants even fell another four games back of the NL West-leading Dodgers in September. No one else in the NL stepped up, however: The Pirates also won 88 games, making them the only other non-division winner in the NL besides the Giants and Brewers — Milwaukee went 82-80 — with a winning record.
Pittsburgh and San Francisco faced off in the NL Wild Card Game, and the Giants advanced. They then took down the NL East champs, the 96-win Nationals, in four games. The NL Central champion Cardinals were next in the NLCS, in five games. And then the Giants won a seven-game World Series against the Royals, a team that had won an AL wild card and 89 games, then defeated a run of opponents with better records themselves.
The Giants didn’t do much for most of the season that made them look like a postseason juggernaut, but most of the rest of the NL was worse. Star catcher Buster Posey was great, of course, and Hunter Pence, Brandon Crawford and Pablo Sandoval all produced, too. The rotation, Madison Bumgarner aside, was a mess, however, with midseason trade acquisition Jake Peavy the only other pitcher to turn in even an average performance for San Francisco. The bullpen had its high points — Jean Machi, Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla and some others — but the 2010 pen this was not.
In the end, it was all enough. Despite their complete averageness, the Giants took down the Pirates, Nationals, Cardinals and Royals in succession. They survived the regular season, survived the Wild Card Game, then defeated teams that, reasonably, you would not have chosen them to defeat. Don’t misread here; the Giants earned that title. But they did not make it easy on themselves at any point after June 8, that’s for sure.
Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
