The San Francisco Giants just know how to win. As an A’s fan, I am jealous and I wonder what could have been had the A’s made it out of the Wild Card round against the Royals. But it doesn’t matter. What I just witnessed was one of the greatest managerial performances of my lifetime.

Entering this game, all the talk from fans called for Madison Bumgarner to start Game 7. Bumgarner has been amazing this entire postseason run, but manager Bruce Bochy knew that he wouldn’t do that. He had a plan and stuck with it.

Bochy knew that there was a chance that he would have to go to the bullpen early, but opted to keep starter Tim Hudson as long as possible before going to Jeremy Affeldt. Affeldt has been on of the most reliable guys out the pen and Bochy used him just enough to get through a couple tough stretches.

Then entered Bumgarner.

To win the World Series, sometimes you have to ride your workhorse as far as he can take you. Instead of starting Bumgarner, Bochy saved his star pitcher for the middle of the game, giving the Giants the best chance to ride their ace as long as they could.

Bumgarner threw five shutout innings. It was impressive. It was amazing. It was historic.

Bochy had the rest of the bullpen intact just in case. That’s how smart he managed the game tonight. He saw what weapons he had at his disposal and perfectly executed it. Bochy, managed one hell of a game.

The Giants deserve this. Bochy was the perfect architect to make this dynasty happen.