MADISON... YA BUM!
umgarner uses arm, at to jolt Jacobs’s Cy shot
Jacob deGrom fumed about not getting a called strike three. Then again, when the Mets face Madison Bumgarner, things never seem to go well.
Bumgarner hit an RBI double for the only earned run off the Mets ace and topped him on the mound too, pitching the Giants past the Mets, 3-1, on Thursday.
In his first appearance in New York since tossing a fourhit shutout in the 2016 NL wild-card game, Bumgarner (5-5) gave up five hits and went eight innings to match his longest start of the season. He struck out eight and walked none.
“We’ve seen him do that a few times in his career where he pitches a beautiful game and does something with the bat and helped himself,” San Fran- cisco manager Bruce Bochy said.
Bumgarner extended his scoreless streak at Citi Field to 33 innings before Todd Frazier homered to begin the seventh. The big lefty is 7-0 with a 1.42 ERA in eight starts against the Mets — he’s 5-0 with an 0.59 ERA in six starts at the Mets’ park.
“He has pitched well here,” Bochy said. “I don’t know how to explain that. He pitches well in a lot of places. It seems like he has done some of his best work here.”
The Giants led 1-0 and had a runner at first with two outs in the fourth when an 0-2 pitch to Nick Hundley was called a ball. DeGrom (8-8) and catcher Devin Mesoraco both started to walk off the field, but plate umpire Tony Randazzo called a ball on a pitch that a computerized TV strike zone showed well inside the box.
Hundley eventually walked and Bumgarner made it 2-0 with a double down the left field line, past the range of Frazier.
As deGrom went to back up the plate, he began yelling at plate umpire Tony Randazzo.
“I told him he can’t miss it,” deGrom said. “I thought it was a strike and you can’t miss that.”
After getting the final out of the inning, deGrom flung some paper cups in the dugout along with his glove in frustration. “I don’t know if I felt like I had a good chance of getting the barrel on that,” Bumgarner said with a laugh. “A swinging bat, that’s a dangerous bat.”
It was Bumgarner’s 57th career RBI and 34th career extrabase hit. Both totals are second-most behind active pitchers, behind Adam Wainwright.
DeGrom went six innings and exited with a major league-best 1.71 ERA. He allowed two runs overall on four hits, striking out 10 with a season-high four walks.
DeGrom has often wound up with losses and no-decisions this season because the Mets haven’t scored much for him. He appears to be in a three-way race for the NL Cy Young Award with Philadelphia’s Aaron Nola and Washington’s Max Scherzer — Nola outdueled Scherzer at Nationals Park on Thursday afternoon.