SAN FRANCISCO – Safe to say Madison Bumgarner is ready for 2017 to come to an end.
Although his ERA and WHIP are on par with where they usually are, the Ace only has three wins in a season shortened by a bizarre and infamous dirt bike accident.
More recently, Bumgarner has given up 14 home runs in his last 14 starts. He’s giving up 1.2 long balls per 9 innings this year, the highest rate since he gave up two in four appearances as a 19-year-old rookie back in 2009.
Sunday afternoon MadBum gave up three home runs in the San Francisco Giants’ 7-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals…and would have given up four if Gorkys Hernandez hadn’t robbed Tommy Pham of one in the first inning. Bumgarner said he was missing over the center of the plate, which was the reason for the long ball.
“I like to throw to the four corners of the zone,” said Bumgarner. “I haven’t went back and looked, just from memory it seems like (they were) definitely more middle-middle than I want.
“I throw up in the zone a lot on purpose, I throw down a lot on purpose too. But that middle section is no good.”
Giants manager Bruce Bochy admitted his star pitcher was a little off on Sunday, pointing to Bumgarner’s recent flu-like symptoms that made Bumgarner miss a start last Thursday. But Bochy offered another reason for Sunday’s power surge.
“It’s part of the game now, this long ball,” said Bochy. “It’s historic, the numbers you’re looking at. In August, and really from day one. I mean home runs are being hit.”
But after Sunday’s loss, Bumgarner didn’t want to place blame anywhere other than himself.
“I didn’t give us a chance to win today,” said Bumgarner. “I let that game get away from me. Just got to find a way not to do that.”
The Giants now travel to Colorado for a three game series against the Rockies, where Bumgarner will decidedly not ride a dirt bike on an off day.