"What are they saying about us now?'' says Sabean, general manager of the Giants. "What they saying about the cockroaches?
"Can you believe this?
"Just the way we drew it up.''
Ah, yeah, sure.
The Giants defied all of the odds, really, all common logic, to win their third World Series championship in the last five years with a heart-stopping, 3-2, Game 7 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
You're not supposed to win a World Series title with a one-man rotation named Madison Bumgarner.How can you win when your best all-around player, catcher Buster Posey, hits .154 without an extra-base hit in 69 at-bats?
Can someone possibly explain how three of your four starters can yield a 9.35 ERA, and in Games 6 and 7, last a total of only nine outs, and still win the World Series?
Anyone?
Well, it helps when you've got Bumgarner on your side.
He pitched a postseason record 52 2/3 innings, made six starts and yielded a 0.56 ERA.
Oh, and for an encore, he records a save the ol'-fashioned way, pitching the final five innings.
"He's definitely the difference in this World Series,'' Royals DH Billy Butler said. "If there's one guy who separated himself, and carried his team, it's Bumgarner.
"He put his team on his back and carried them.
"He dominated every time he was on the mound.''
His resume will show that he went 2-0 with a 0.43 ERA, the greatest pitching performance in a World Series since Sandy Koufax in 1965 for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"He was so good,'' Giants right fielder Hunter Pence said, "that when he was on the mound it was like a momentum switch. You could just feel how good he was.''
Perhaps now, Sabean says, it's safe to go back to his e-mail and maybe even send a response to that letter sent to him a few days ago.
"The irony is that a rogue e-mail gets through,'' Sabean tells USA TODAY Sports. "And I didn't check it for at least a day. And this guy is railing on me. He says to me, "Go to Bochy. Don't you understand, Bumgarner is an all-time ace. He should have pitched 1 and 4, and now he needs to start Game 7.
"You get into his office, you exert your authority as GM. You tell Bumgarner to start.''
Sabean, still laughing, says, "What, the guy is 25 years old. You want him to go three days' rest twice. These guys do it later in their career, but come on.''
Well, considering Bumgarner went five shutout innings, and yielded just two hits, he was just an inning short of a quality start, anyways. The man threw 68 pitches. The combined total for Game 7 starters Tim Hudson and Jeremy Guthrie was just 77.
"At one point, I noticed the pitch count,'' Sabean says. "Then, I said, 'Why even worry about it. He was in the zone. I think with each out, he was well into their heads.
"He's got an ungodly resume now.''
Well, so do the Giants, who have become the first National League team since the St. Louis Cardinals (1942-1946) won three titles in the last five years.
They have a strange and unorthodox way of getting into these October dances, but when they do, they're the last one standing, and turning out the lights.The Giants were partying hard, and late into the night at Kauffman Stadium, still scratching their heads and wondering how they do it.
"We're a family in here, that's how we explain it,'' says Giants right fielder Hunter Pence, who hit .444 in the series with three doubles, a homer, five RBI, seven runs scored, and seven speeches. "I love them. We have some pretty special guys that do some amazing performance on the big stage.''
Pence, their inspirational leader, gathered the players together after their crushing 10-0 loss in Game 6, and told him they'd be fine.
Bruce Bochy, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame one day as the finest manager in the game today, took it a step further. He reminded his players of 2012 when they trailed the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 in the best-of-five series. And trailed 3-1 against the St. Louis Cardinals in the best-of-seven series that year. And went on the road to win the wild-card game this year in Pittsburgh. And beat the heavily favored Washington Nationals in the Division Series. And the favored Cardinals in the NLCS.
So why couldn't they win a single game on the road in Kansas City, even though no visiting team had won a Game 7 on the road in 35 years?
"We knew what the statistics were,'' said Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt, the winning pitcher after throwing 2 1/3 innings, extending his streak to 22 consecutive scoreless postseason outings. "But when you tell us a statistic, the means there's a chance.
"And with this team, you're not going to let a statistic stop us."
Simply, they never do.
"Bochy was really good about that in the pregame meeting,'' Giants president Larry Baer said. "He said, "We went to Pittsburgh. Forget it. Then we went to Washington. They won 96 games. We went to St. Louis….
"I think the culture that we've done it before. The fact that these guys have been battle tested. It created the culture, and getting the rookies through it.
"It was huge.''
Can you say dynasty?
"Every year is a new movie,'' Baer said. "But the culture is not going to change. That's what gets sustained. Dynasty is a tough word, because the bodies will change, but next year will be a new movie, which is a good thing.''
The 2015 movie will have a different cast of characters.
Pablo Sandoval, who won his third World Series ring with the Giants, raising his career batting average to .426 in the World Series, is a free agent. He's expected to get at least a five-year deal for $90 million. It won't be coming from the Giants.
They'll be looking elsewhere.
Veteran starters Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong are free agents, too. So is outfielder Michael Morse. And setup man Sergio Romo.
Yet, as Bochy reminded everyone, center fielder Angel Pagan is returning from his season-ending back surgery. So is starter Matt Cain, who has elbow chips removed. And the rest of the nucleus is intact.
"The thing I love about what's happening in San Francisco,'' Bochy says, "is the continuity that we have. That allows you to hopefully compete and contend every year.'';
And to win, again and again, every other year for the last six five years.
"But this one was a crazy one,'' says Sandoval, who caught the final out, a foul pop-up from Salvador Perez, and fell to the ground, pointing towards the skies. Drama. Everything you want. This is the one I'll remember the most.''
So will the Giants, who making it impossible for anyone to copy their blueprint to World Series championships.
Why, even in the scary ninth, when it looked like Bumgarner's brilliance would be ruined by center fielder Gregor Blanco's blunder, the Giants acted like they wanted a little more blunder.
There were two outs and no one on when Alex Gordon hit a blooper to center field. Blanco charged in. Looked like he might catch it. Stopped. Started. And the ball dropped, skipped past him, and Blanco kicked it toward the wall.
"That was our stumble, fumble, fumble, tumble drill,'' Sabean says.
Says Blanco: "I was just glad [Gordon] stopped at third. Madison supported me. I saved him sometimes during the season. He saved me tonight.
"That's what families do.''
There was a time this year when the Giants were the best team in the National League. There was a two-month period when they were the worst. Still, they always believed, and when they absolutely needed to win, they did.
"We been dreaming of this, pushing for this,'' Pence says, "but even through all of the tough times, we looked at each and said, "Don't forget, we're the best team in the world. We got to believe it.''
Now, they got the entire baseball world believing it.
Once again.
"We're standing here,'' Pence says, "but don't ask me, because I just don't know how.''
