Nightengale: Giants' Bumgarner the last ace standing

ST. LOUIS - Maybe it's those chocolate mints on the pillows.

Oh, those free shampoo bottles and soap bars you can steal from your hotel room.

There's just something about the road that turns San Francisco Giants starter Madison Bumgarner into Carl Hubbell.

Then again, maybe there's something about Bumgarner, who has emerged as not only the Giants' ace, but the preeminent force among the four postseason teams remaining..

He dominated the St. Louis Cardinals in a record-setting performance Saturday night at Busch Stadium, leading the Giants to a 3-0 victory in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, yielding just four hits in 7 2/3 innings.

Yet, there's no one in baseball pitching like this guy, and when he's on the road, competing in one of these hostile environments with a frenzied sellout crowd, he's absolutely invincible.

You look at all of the great pitchers who started this postseason: Clayton Kershaw, Jon Lester, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, David Price, Adam Wainwright, Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann.

Well, Bumgarner is the only one who has won a postseason game. He's won two, in fact. And only Wainwright is still even in the playoffs, losing Saturday night to Bumgarner.

"He may not be No. 1,'' Giants first baseman Brandon Belt says, "but he's among the top 2.''

Ok, who's No. 1, then?

"Well,'' Belt says, "he might be No. 1 and No. 2.''

The guy is that good.

Bumgarner has now pitched 26 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings on the road, the longest playoff streak in history. He surpassed Tommy John, Catfish Hunter, Christy Mathewson, Mariano Rivera, and the record-holder Art Nehf of the New York Giants, in a single night.

Bumgarner is perfect in four postseason road appearances, going 4-0 with a 0.59 ERA, giving up just two earned runs in 30 2/3 innings. He has made nine postseason starts in his career, and has pitched at least seven shutout innings in four of them.

Any more questions?

"Bum just seems to elevate himself as good as anybody I've seen in the playoffs,'' Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt says. "He seems to be getting better every time out. You look at him now, and he's got a little different look in his eye.''

It was the same look Affeldt saw when the Giants played the Pittsburgh Pirates in the wild-card game. He pitched a four-hit shutout, 9-0, and the Giants haven't stopped winning.

"When I saw the look in his eye in Pittsburgh,'' Affeldt said, "it pretty much told me, "You don't even need to warm up tonight.'

He had that same look in this game.

Bumgarner, showing no fear, faced 16 consecutive batters from the second inning until the seventh without permitting a hit. The Cardinals' No. 1 through No. 5 hitters managed just one hit in 16 at-bats with four strikeouts.

They had no chance.

"It's pretty incredible what that kid has done in his first few years in the postseason,'' Affeldt says. "There's definitely a legacy he's trying to make.

"It's just his competitiveness. That tough guy mentality. He refuses to think that anybody is better than him. He's not afraid to fail, and he's not afraid to succeed mentally.''

Who else do you know would run to first base on a ground ball, and worrying that he may not get to the bag in time, simply dropped his shoulder and tagged out Kolten Wong with his body before he reached first base?

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny came out to argue, asked for a replay, but the call stood.

No harm. No foul.

"I knew I had a better shot at tagging him,'' Bumgarner says, "than beating him to the bag. I don't know what they were reviewing.''

This man has no fear.

Bumgarner, 25, twice challenged Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig to fights this year. You don't want to mess with this man. Puig certainly wanted no part of it, and backed off when Bumgarner threw his glove down and almost dared him to come to the mound.

"I don't like anybody to be able to tell how I'm feeling," he says. "I try to stay even keel. I don't want you guys, or the other team, or the fans or anyone to know where my head is at.

"Even though sometimes it's probably in some bad places."

Ah, you mean like the time the Giants bus broke down and Bumgarner fixed it.

Or the time this summer when the clubhouse refrigerator broke and right fielder Hunter Pence couldn't figure out how to close it. He summoned help, and no luck. Bumgarner came in, took a look, and fixed it on the spot.

"He's a cowboy,'' Pence says. "He's wrangling and roping and working on his roping in spring training. It's pretty awesome to watch. He's a unique character.

"Something breaks, he fixes it.

"He's a real fixer on this team.''

The more conventional term is an ace.

He hardly resembles the same guy the Cardinals knocked around in Game 1 of the 2012 NLCS when they clobbered him for eight hits and six runs in just 3 2/3 innings in the Giants' 6-4 loss. He never forgot that game, and has been phenomenal ever since.

Then again, so have the Giants.

They have turned into a different animal once the calendar turns to October, winning 13 of their last 14 postseason games, and eight consecutive series.

There's a reason the Giants have won two World Series championships in the last four years.

And Bumgarner is the reason they could make it three of the last five.

"You know, he's so good at what he does,'' says Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who has never lost a postseason series since his arrival in San Francisco. "Since he's come up, he's just gotten better too.

"This guy is one of the best left-handers in the game.''

One day, if anyone is going to take that Cy Young award from Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, it may be Bumgarner.

For now, he'll settle on winning that third World Series ring.

"It's a crazy game, anything can happen,'' says Bumgarner, who won 18 games this year with a 2.98 ERA. "There's no way to tell what's going to happen.''

Yet, what we do know is that there's no better pitcher in October right now than Bumgarner.

Considering that he hit .258 this season, and has four homers and 15 RBI, there's no finer hitter among pitchers, either.

"Yeah, it's more impressive when he hits a homer,'' Belt says. ""He didn't do that. But coming in here, and shutting down a team like this, that's pretty impressive.''

Tough crowd.

Just the way Bumgarner likes it.

GALLERY: Cardinals-Giants in the NLCS