Morning Marquee: Madison Bumgarner throws shutout against Royals, Giants on the cusp

The San Francisco Giants Madison Bumgarner‘s performances in the fall are becoming legendary. Bumgarner held the Kansas City Royals to four hits in a complete game shutout win 5-0, bringing the Giants to within a win of clinching. The shutout was the first in the World Series since Josh Beckett in 2003 for the Marlins.

This was the seventh consecutive postseason start in which he’s gone at least seven innings, while allowing three runs or fewer. He has a 1.13 ERA in the postseason this year, and in four career World Series starts, MadBum now has a 0.29 ERA.

Brandon Crawford helped the effort with a three RBI performance, which was more than enough to support the masterful outing of Bumgarner.

The Giants will now have the difficult task of clinching in Kansas City as the Series moves back to Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday. It may not be as daunting as it seems, as the Giants finished with a 4-1 record away from home in their two previous World Series title runs, and have ended five of the eight consecutive postseason series wins on the road.

Tragedy struck the entire baseball world as the St. Louis Cardinals’ Oscar Taveras died in a car crash in his native Dominican Republic on Sunday. Taveras, 22, made his Major League debut this season after being one of the MLBs top prospects over the last few seasons. Taveras was with his girlfriend at the time, who also died in the crash. Many players were devastated to hear of the loss just prior to the start of game 5.

Here are the headlines you may have missed:

‘Oscar Taveras will never be forgotten’ – Redbird Rants

‘Giants take commanding 3 games to 2 lead in World Series’ – Around the Foghorn

‘Royals headed home down 3-2 in the Series’ – Kings of Kauffman

‘Mike Trout, Giancarlo Stanton win Hank Aaron Award’ – Call to the Pen

‘Justin Ruggiano largely a role player for 2014 Chicago Cubs’ – Cubbies Crib