San Francisco Giants: Bumgarner’s Historic Day Overshadowed By Familiar Issue
Madison Bumgarner had a historic day, but familiar issues doomed the San Francisco Giants in the late innings on opening day.
San Francisco Giants’ ace Madison Bumgarner further established himself as the most dangerous pitcher in the game with a bat in his hands. His counterpart for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Zack Greinke, respected Bumgarner’s hitting ability in the first meeting between the two, refusing to give in to Bumgarner with a fastball on a full count. Instead, he stayed away from the zone with offspeed offerings, eventually throwing ball four.
The second at-bat saw Greinke forge his way ahead in the count, but he missed his spot on a 1-2 fastball. The heater, up in the zone, leaked over the middle of the plate, and Bumgarner didn’t miss. His line drive zipped out of the park at a staggering 112 miles per hour, giving the Giants a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning.
Bumgarner was working on a perfect game at the time, and retired each of the 15 batters he faced. He ran into some trouble in the sixth, giving up three runs on four hits, but bounced back to keep the game tied at three with his 10th strikeout to end the frame.
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In the top of the seventh, he atoned for those runs. Facing reliever Andrew Chafin, Bumgarner took advantage of another mistake. Chafin threw the first two pitches of the at-bat out of the strikezone, and his third pitch was a get-it-over fastball right down the heart of the plate. Bumgarner launched that one as well at 112 mph off the bat, putting the team back ahead and making him the first Giants’ pitcher to ever hit two home runs on opening day.
The lefty stud did his work on both sides of the game, striking out 11 batters on 88 pitches in seven innings of work and leaving the game with a lead, largely on his own accord. But old demons quickly reared their ugly heads, bringing back bitter memories of the devastating end to the 2016 season.
Derek Law was the first pitcher out of the bullpen, and couldn’t retire a single batter he faced. Each of those three hitters picked up singles, with the third coming off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt and wiping away that one-run advantage. Ty Blach and Hunter Strickland closed out the inning to keep the lead where it was.
The offense went back to work, and Joe Panik‘s leadoff triple in the top of the ninth put them in a great spot. Pinch hitter Conor Gillaspie got the job down, lining a ball out to center field where A.J. Pollock had to dive to make an outstanding grab. The run scored on the sacrifice fly to put the Giants back in front. They had a chance to put some distance between themselves and the D’Backs, with the bases loaded, one out, and Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford due up. They couldn’t add on, however, and took that one-run advantage into the home half of the ninth.
But that missed opportunity wouldn’t come back to hurt them, right? Here comes the shiny, new, $62-million closer Mark Melancon, and things will be okay, right? Wrong. It was more of the same for the Giants despite the new face on the mound. Melancon got through the first two batters of the inning in order, but couldn’t get that final out. He allowed four straight hits to lead to a pair of runs, sending the Arizona fans home happy after the improbably comeback.
But let’s take a moment to sit back, take a deep breathe, and remember that it’s only the first game of the season. It won’t always happen like this, and Melancon is too good a pitcher to let this become the norm. There’s some stats that are guaranteed to change: Melancon’s ERA won’t stay at 18.00, his save percentage won’t stay at zero, and Bumgarner’s slash-line won’t stay at 1.000/1.000/4.000. That’s just how it goes. 161 games left.