Goldschmidt hurts S.F., but Belt just hurts
Friday night’s game was rolling along with nothing at stake for the Giants and everything at stake for the Diamondbacks, who continue their unexpected run toward a wild-card berth.
The highlights clearly were the at-bats pitting two of the sport’s elite players, Madison Bumgarner and Paul Goldschmidt, and Goldschmidt emerged the victor with three hits and two RBIs in Arizona’s 2-1 victory.
The lowlight was just as clear — and disturbing. The game came to a screeching halt in the sixth inning when Brandon Belt was beaned by rookie lefty Anthony Banda and immediately collapsed, quieting the crowd of 38,967.
After the game, manager Bruce Bochy said Belt had concussion symptoms.
It was a 79 mph curve, but that hardly mattered
for the first baseman who has had three concussions, one at the University of Texas and two in the big leagues. The ball hit the back right side of Belt’s helmet, knocking it off his head.
“I’m sure this is probably scaring him a little bit because he’s been through this,” Bochy said. “It’s not a lot of fun to go through one, and now he’s going through another one. I’m sure he’s got concerns, as we do for him.
“Our hope is this thing is going to be a lot better tomorrow.”
There was no reason for Belt to stay in the game. His history of concussions dates to May 2009 when he was hit by a pitch at the University of Texas. Concussion awareness wasn’t what it is today, and Belt was cleared to play the next day despite requiring stitches in his ear.
Belt’s first concussion with the Giants came in July 2014 when he was drilled by an errant throw from Marco Scutaro during batting practice.
The next concussion came when Belt took a knee to the head during a slide in September 2015.
Last September, Belt was hit on the helmet, a glancing blow, by Cubs reliever Rob Zastryzny, and stayed in the game. Belt remained upright, and a concussion diagnosis wasn’t considered necessary.
Friday’s necessitated that Belt be placed in concussion protocol.
“That’s no good,” Bumgarner said. “He’s had some concussion problems in the past, and hopefully it’s not that. It certainly didn’t look good. I know it was a curveball, but it was really loud.”
Catcher Buster Posey, who served on the concussion disabled list in April after he was struck in the helmet by a 94 mph fastball from Arizona’s Taijuan Walker, said, “It’s always scary, a ball up around the head and the way he went down. I hope he’s all right.”
Bumgarner completed seven innings and drilled Jake Lamb an inning after Belt was beaned. Both runs Bumgarner gave up were courtesy of Goldschmidt, who homered three times in Thursday’s wild 10-8 win at Wrigley Field, which had three rain delays totaling 2½ hours.
Goldschmidt legged out an infield single in his first at-bat, beating a strong one-hopper by Brandon Crawford in the hole between short and third.
In Goldschmidt’s next at-bat, Bumgarner threw a 1-0 changeup that was smashed to rightcenter, Goldschmidt galloping for a run-scoring triple.
Next at-bat, Goldschmidt blasted an RBI single off the left-field wall.
The Giants’ run came when they played small ball in the fourth inning. Bunt single by Kelby Tomlinson. Walk to Posey. Infield single by Hunter Pence. Walk to Crawford.
The bases were loaded with one out, but Gorkys Hernandez struck out and Ryder Jones grounded out. The Giants collected three hits, and Banda earned his first big-league win.