San Francisco Giants: Rehab Be Damned, the Giants Need Bumgarner Now
As San Francisco Giants’ starting pitchers falter day after day, it’s making the fact that they need Madison Bumgarner back even more clear.
The San Francisco Giants could not have gotten off to a better start in the top of the first inning on Sunday. The Chicago Cubs played some bad defense, Mac Williamson came through with a big hit, and they gave the pitching staff a quick 3-0 lead. In keeping with a concerning pattern this season, the pitching staff let that lead slip away quickly.
Ty Blach immediately gave back all three runs before getting out of the top of the first, and by the time his line was finalized, he allowed five runs and took another loss. It was just the latest sign that the Giants need Madison Bumgarner back in the worst way.
The last 19 games have seen the Giants’ rotation issues become exacerbated. In that stretch, which dates back to game one of a four-game sweep at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies, Giants’ starters have averaged fewer than five innings pitched per start. They get, on average, 14 outs per start, equal to 4.2 innings. They also give up just about four runs per start. Four runs in less than five innings is a rough way to go about things.
Staying in that same 19-game stretch, Giants’ starters have tossed three quality starts. Derek Holland is responsible for two of them, including a 6.1-shutout innings effort on May 13th against the Pittsburgh Pirates, which represents the only game that a Giants’ starter has given up fewer than three runs in the last 19 games.
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A quality start (six or more innings, three or fewer runs) is not a high benchmark, but it’s a benchmark that Giants’ starters continue to fail in reaching. They’re not going short because of pitch restrictions, they’re going short because they’re pitching poorly. The Giants need to let Bumgarner, pitch restriction or not, take the mound when they get back home on Friday.
The team is only get about five innings per start anyway, so they would almost certainly be better off letting Bumgarner continue to build his arm strength at the big league level instead of using another starter who gives them a much smaller chance of winning.
Had Bumgarner not gone out and absolutely dominated in his first rehab assignment on Saturday, maybe this discussion wouldn’t be taking place. However, he went out and looked like vintage Bumgarner against the Albuquerque Isotopes. He faced 12 batters, struck out eight of them, and didn’t give up a hit. The only baserunner he allowed was on a walk, and he reached his pitch count with no complications.
Next time out, the Giants expect Bumgarner to reach around 70 pitches as he continues to get back to full strength following the near two-month layoff. Would Bumgarner, even coming off the injury and on a pitch limitation, be a worse option than anyone in the current rotation? It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the answer is ‘yes’.
The Giants are lucky to be playing in the National League West, a division that has collectively fallen flat on their faces over the first third of the season. The Giants are three games under .500, but only three games back of the division, as well. They need to start picking up some momentum, and Bumgarner seems like the perfect guy to give them some.
And maybe, Bumgarner can return and be the stopper. Maybe he can give the rotation some confidence, and they can start pitching better with their ace back on the mound. It’s a big maybe, but there’s no time like the present to find out.