2010 Tim Lincecum Game 5 SF 3 Texas 1 Game Score 80
2011 Derek Holland Game 4 Texas 4 StL 0 Game Score 84
2012 Madison Bumgarner Game 2 SF 2 Det 0 Game Score 79
2013 Jon Lester Game 5 Bos 3 St L 1 Game Score 74
2014 Madison Bumgarner Game 5 SF 5 KC 0 Game Score 87
2015 Johnny Cueto Game 2 KC 7 Mets 1 Game Score 80
2016 Corey Kluber Game 1 Clev 6 Cubs 0 Game Score 73
2017 Clayton Kershaw Game 1 Dodgers 3 Astros 1 Game Score 78
2018 David Price Game 5 Bost 5 Dodgers 1 Game Score 70
2019 Gerrit Cole Game 5 Hous 8 Wash 1 Game Score 74
For those of you who missed part one, I’m going through every World Series and trying to pick the best pitched game. One thing I should have mentioned before, but it didn’t matter much before now. I’m only looking at starts. Then I let the guys from Bill James Online pick the best pitched World Series game of the decade. Here are comments on the games I selected:
2010 Tim Lincecum Game 5 SF 3 Texas 1 You can toss a coin with Bumgarner’s game 4. They both had a game score of 80. Both pitched 8 innings and gave up 3 hits and 2 walks. Lincecum gave up a homer but had 10 strikeouts while Bumgarner had 6. Lincecum’s game clenched the series.
2011 Derek Holland Game 4 Texas 4 StL 0 St. Louis had scored 16 runs the night before. Maybe they were tired of swinging the bat that many times. Holland pitched 8.1 innings with seven strikeouts. He walked two and gave up 2 hits. This win tied the series for Texas, although St. Louis later won the series.
2012 Madison Bumgarner Game 2 SF 2 Det 0 Bumgarner was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the seventh. Remember those days. He had 8 strikeouts and gave up 2 walks and 2 hits in his seven innings of pitching. The Giants went on to sweep the series.
2013 Jon Lester Game 5 Bos 3 St L 1 It was this or Jon Lester in game 1. I picked this game as it put Boston up 3 games to 2 and Boston clenched the series in game 6. Also, it was a close game 1-1 after 6 innings while Boston had a big lead early in game 1. Lester pitched 7.2 innings, 7 strikeouts and no walks.
2014 Madison Bumgarner Game 5 SF 5 KC 0 This game gets forgotten due to Bumgarner’s great relief performance in game 7, which I would be tempted to pick except for the rule that only starts are eligible. Bumgarner struck out 8 no walks and four base hits in a rare event since that time, a World Series complete game.
2015 Johnny Cueto Game 2 KC 7 Mets 1 Another complete game. Cueto only gave up 2 hits.
2016 Corey Kluber Game 1 Clev 6 Cubs 0 This was by far the best start in the World Series and the starter pitched only 6 innings. Kluber had 9 strikeouts and was dominating when he was out there.
2017 Clayton Kershaw Game 1 Dodgers 3 Astros 1 I think we forget, at least I did was how dominating in game 1 after what happened later in the series. He held the Astros to 1 run in 7 innings with 11 strikeouts and zero walks.
2018 David Price Game 5 Bost 5 Dodgers 1 I picked this one in part as it was the third time Price pitched against the Dodgers in a 5-game series. He was called to pitch early and Chris Sale was moved back to game 5. The Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced this at the end of game 4 and wouldn’t explain why. Sale was having shoulder and stomach issues. Sale did pitch the last inning of game 4. Price threw 7 innings with 5 strikeouts, giving up only 3 hits in one run.
2019 Gerrit Cole Game 5 Hous 8 Wash 1. Cole pitched 7 innings, with 7 strikeouts and only 3 hits to put his team up 3-2 in games. Unfortunately for him and his teammates, they lost the last two games at home.
I was the fourth to vote for this poll and I broke the three-way tie. Congratulations to Madison Bumgarner for his great pitching in game 5, although some readers of the thread feel his best effort was in game 7 of that series. The thing is they have a good argument.
Another argument involving Bumgarner is he has a great argument to being the best World Series pitcher of all time. He deserves some extra credit for that.
