San Francisco Giants: Bumgarner Returns to a Mound Amid Awful June

Things keep getting worse for the San Francisco Giants in the month of June, but Madison Bumgarner made his return to a mound.

June has been an extremely unhappy month for the San Francisco Giants. On Sunday, the New York Mets, a team that entered San Francisco having lost seven of their last eight games, completed a three-game sweep against the Giants. It was the Giants’ fifth straight loss, the 12th loss in 13 games, and their 18th loss in 23 games this month. In addition to another flat loss on Sunday, rookie outfielder Austin Slater, one of the bewilderingly few bright spots this month, was forced to leave the game because of tightness in his hip flexor.

There hasn’t been a whole lot to cheer for this season, and there isn’t much hope for the immediate future. But on Sunday night in the Arizona Rookie League, there was a bit of hope.

Among a group of teenagers and players getting their first taste of professional baseball, Giants’ left-hander Madison Bumgarner returned to a real mound. He was back on the rubber for the first time since April 19th, his last big league start before spraining his shoulder in a dirt-bike accident during an off-day.

Bumgarner did as he was expected, throwing three innings against the Arizona League Angels. His first inning went cleanly, as Bumgarner got a pop-up and two groundballs for three straight outs. In the second inning, he struck out his first batter but allowed a walk, which turned out to be the only baserunner he allowed. His third and final inning was another one-two-three affair, featuring a strikeout, a pop-up to the catcher, and another groundball.

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In his first live action in over two months, Bumgarner’s fastball velocity was a little lower than normal, sitting between 88 and 91. This is to be expected, though. He will work his way back to throwing with a bit more velocity as he continues to rehab in the minor leagues. Bumgarner’s day wasn’t done after three innings, however. After completing live mound work, he went down to the bullpen mound where he worked on getting his pitch count up a bit.

The next step for Bumgarner will be to continue his rehab at a higher level in the minor leagues. He will pitch in either Triple-A with the Sacramento River Cats or in Advanced-A with the San Jose Giants, depending on his rehab schedule and which team is at home on that day.

Bumgarner made four starts in the major leagues before his injury, and pitched very well despite an 0-3 record. He owned a 3.00 ERA and 1.074 WHIP in 27 innings, striking out 28 batters while walking only four. He also became the first pitcher in major league history to hit two home runs as a batter on opening day, when he hit two monster shots against Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitchers Zack Greinke and Andrew Chafin.

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There won’t be a Hollywood ending to this season. The team is too far out of the race to hope for Bumgarner to come back and carry them to the promised land in October. But at the very least, Bumgarner’s return brings excitement, something for the fans to look forward to. There simply hasn’t been enough of that for the 2017 edition of the Giants.

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