For Bumgarner, Sunday’s start was memorable both for his dominance on the mound and his performance in the batter’s box.
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The four-game sweep of the Nationals – the Giants’ first at home since May 28-30, 1971, against the franchise (then the Montreal Expos) – lifted them 11 games over.500, equaling their high-water mark for the season.
“I’m always looking for a pitch to hit”, Duffy said. “What a game!”
The base running clearly didn’t get to Bumgarner on an unseasonable hot day in San Francisco. San Francisco’s bullpen has allowed three hits over 8 1/3 scoreless innings in the first two games of the series and might have an emerging star in rookie Josh Osich, who has yielded one earned run in his first 12 appearances.
“There’s a little more pressure (when you’re pitching against Bumgarner)”. “It’s a special outing”.
Bumgarner is all-world, but not invincible.
This wasn’t a day that should’ve favored the pitchers at China Basin. The temperature at first pitch was 85 degrees – the warmest here in almost five years.
By the late innings Saturday, the Nationals appeared in total disarray. So I knew we were in a good situation.
But the Nationals could not play pinball against Bumgarner. Instead, they were on full tilt all afternoon as the left-hander threw cutters on their hands. He allowed three runs in the fourth inning and an additional run in the fifth before he was lifted from the contest. They whiffed on 16 of the 32 swings they took against his four-seam heat.
Ranking 21st in home runs, San Francisco has hit 101 this season.
“It could make or break the season, this point in the schedule, the way things are going right now”, Bumgarner said. It certainly is for me, regardless of the result. “It’s got to be fun to watch, and it’s fun for me to be a part of”.
Cain put together some impressive pitch sequences in the first four innings, when he held the Nationals to one hit and one run on Harper’s sacrifice fly. “It’s not easy to do, get a four-game sweep, especially against a team like this and the pitching they have”. The players in the clubhouse played none the wiser, but the Giants’ 2015 hinges on the second half of August and the Nationals series was the first litmus test. His walk rate is down to five percent, a career low. He also made a diving catch in center field to end the third inning. Matt Duffy hit a bases-clearing double and Kelby Tomlinson ran wild on the bases as the Giants all but made the Nationals submit in a 12-6 victory. They may not be the flawless club some saw through rose-colored glasses in the spring, and injuries have played a large factor, but it’s hard to reconcile their current position with the level of talent on their roster.
Ian Desmond cleared the left-field bleachers with a second-inning leadoff home run that hit the walkway for one of the longest in the ballpark’s 16-year history. The usually-dominant Joe Ross faltered, and the ever-inconsistent offense struggled mightily against Giants’ starter Madison Bumgarner.
The Giants hit 14 doubles in the series, their most in a set of any length since hitting 15 in September 1971 against Cincinnati.
In addition to twirling a complete game shutout on Sunday, Bumgarner cracked his fourth home run of the season. Neither the Nationals or Mets looks deserving of a playoff spot right now, but that is the reality we face.
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San Francisco >> Jake Peavy’s shoulders collapsed, Bryce Harper’s jaw dropped and a Giants fan stationed in front of the Coke bottle went home with a surprising souvenir.
