Blast from the past. Bochy's a great manager, but I wonder if he had any trepidation about using Bumgarner. The last time he used his ace as a reliever it didn't work out that well. He inserted Kevin Brown into a tight situation in an elimination game against the Braves in 1998 and Brown gave up a bomb to Michael Tucker which contributed to a Braves' win, forceing another game (which the Padres won). In an ironic note, because Cox had used Rocker early to snuff out a Padres' threat, Greg Maddux pitched the 9th to earn his only playoff save.
Give it up for the Giants. Like some in here, I thought Sabean's first world championship team was the classic "blind squirrel finding an acorn," but he's really put a solid squad together. They kind of remind me of some of the Braves' teams during our impressive run (only with a couple more World Series rings). Very good starting pitching. Reliable bullpen. Good, but not great defense top-to-bottom. Power spread through the line-up. Not particularly swift or athletic, but fundamentally sound. Just a good team that has the proverbial "tough outs" in the line-up. What is particularly impressive about this year's edition is the injuries that they overcame to win it.