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Bumgarner given unusually short leash in loss to Marlins

By

Jacob Hutchinson

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© Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Madison Bumgarner is likely not a happy man. On Wednesday, May 29, he was cruising through six innings against the Miami Marlins, and looked poised to dot the I’s and cross the T’s on a vintage, seven-plus inning performance. One pitch turned hit against the shift later, and Bumgarner was pulled from the game. By the end of the seventh inning, the Giants trailed the Marlins 3-1 and Bumgarner was forced to stomach a woefully unfair loss on his record.

It felt like a game when Bumgarner was on pace to pull the Giants out of their funk. Instead, it was a seventh-straight loss that saw the team’s lone reliable starting arm pulled seemingly too quickly, leaving the mound frustrated and on a path for a lengthy discussion with his manager, Bruce Bochy. If you thought to yourself, “It can’t get any worse,” after yesterday’s 11-3 loss, you were wrong.

The team’s ace is frustrated – along with the rest of the team – after throwing a fantastic game, and the offense has, yet again, shown few signs of life. Here are three thoughts on a 4-2 loss that may have hinted at Madison Bumgarner’s future with the Giants:

Bumgarner’s performance through six

As mentioned, Bumgarner put in a fantastic six innings of work. As the Giants have struggled to give their bullpen (which has seen Travis Bergen, Trevor Gott, and now Nick Vincent head to the injured list in the last week and a day), Bumgarner seemed like he was finally giving them a night off. Through those six innings, he’d allowed five hits, one run (earned), one walk and secured four strikeouts, while hitting the strike zone efficiently (54 strikes on 80 pitches).

Then, with this one pitch to start off the seventh inning, all of that progress was erased. A red-hot Jorge Alfaro ripped a ball past Brandon Belt, the Giants’ lone infielder on the right side of the infield. Bumgarner is known to be opposed to the shift, and his reaction to the hit against it says exactly how he was feeling.

What to make of Bumgarner’s abbreviated outing

It’s almost impossible to imagine Bruce Bochy pulling Madison Bumgarner after 81 pitches unless he was struggling mightily or injured. Neither seemed to initially be the case on Wednesday, but after the game, Bochy and Bumgarner said that Bumgarner had run out of steam (more on that below).

Bumgarner allowed that leadoff hit to Alfaro, which, if played into a straight-up infield, would likely have been an out. But that was it for Bumgarner, and as was pointed out on the Giants’ broadcast, it was likely a decision made before the inning.

What followed was a symptom of Murphy’s Law; if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. Mark Melancon came in and allowed a pair of hits and a sacrifice fly which provided the Marlins with a 3-1 lead, and left Bumgarner on the hook for the eventual loss.

The decision to remove Bumgarner early is not one that Bochy would normally make. He loves to let his pitchers go long, especially Bumgarner, and especially when they’re in a rhythm. This seemed like a decision that was beyond Bochy, although he and Bumgarner both said they agreed with it after the game. As The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly pointed out, innings workload is certain to be a consideration for opposing teams in potential trade talks. More than anything, the decision to pull the plug on Bumgarner feels like it was made with that thought, at least partially in mind:

When he departed the game, Bumgarner spent the duration of the inning next to Bochy. His body language paired with Bochy’s lack of a response, didn’t exactly give off a sense of positivity, although that could have easily been due to Bumgarner’s frustration. It was, however, an almost eerie thing to watch, and carried a sense that Bumgarner wasn’t happy, despite his admitted agreement with the decision after the game.

Bochy and Bumgarner said after the game that Bumgarner lacked his typical energy, hence the short leash.

According to Kerry Crowley, Bumgarner agreed with the decision.

This missed dive from Steven Duggar

One thing you can’t say about the Giants is that the team isn’t trying. At one point tonight, Pablo Sandoval ripped a ball that had a predicted .900 batting average that was caught for an out. Mike Yastrzemski ripped a ball up the middle in the first that played right into the shift, but would have set the team up with runners on first and third and no outs. Brandon Crawford was robbed of a hit on a shot to right field. On the play below, Steven Duggar charged after a line drive and laid out for a catch. He was nowhere near making the catch.

This play feels like a motif for the past week of Giants baseball. There are signs of effort, that the team hasn’t completely given up, and yet, rather than be rewarded, that effort is met with an almost comical rebuff. Eventually, this skid will end (in theory), but for now, the bad plays have piled on top one another like an overflowing garbage can.

Bonus: The Sergio Romo return and Pablo’s infield single

It’s bad to get in a habit of putting silver linings at the bottom of these pieces. The Giants are terrible right now. They have lost seven-straight games, seem completely disjointed in all facets of the game, and have already lost this series to the third-worst team in baseball in the Marlins (19-34). However, they might not be the third-worst team for long if they sweep the Giants (21-33) tomorrow.

That said, there was a bit of hilarity and nostalgia in the top of the ninth inning, when Sergio Romo, who went on to secure a nervy save, and who secured the final out of the Giants’ 2012 World Series, allowed hits to both Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval. Posey eventually scored to cut the deficit to 4-2, but it was Sandoval’s infield hit and smile that sparked a bit of joy in a game in which the Giants played with little:

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