Bumgarner tossed at end of shaky 2nd start
MIAMI — Madison Bumgarner started his second game of the season Monday night and showed a level of intensity that’s in midseason form.
After Bumgarner was removed in the sixth inning of the Giants’ 7-5 loss to the Marlins, he was ejected by plate umpire Jeremie Rehak before he reached the dugout.
Bumgarner wasn’t thrilled with Rehak’s ball-strike calls and stopped to speak with him a couple of times between innings. Bumgarner issued a four-pitch walk to his secondto-last batter, Justin Bour, and didn’t appreciate two of the borderline pitches being called balls.
So Bumgarner popped off, and manager Bruce Bochy walked to the mound to check on him. Once Bumgarer gave up a single to Lewis Brinson that tied the game 4-4, Bochy pulled him.
“I could tell he wanted to toss me,” said Bumgarner, noticing Rehak was looking his way as he walked off the field, “and I said, ‘Go ahead.’ I might’ve give him a little encouragement.”
Rehak’s motion to eject Bumgarner wasn’t noticed by everyone. In fact, Bochy and catcher
Nick Hundley, who were on the mound during the pitching change, didn’t know Bumgarner was ejected until after the game.
Not that it really mattered. His night was done anyway.
“He was frustrated,” Bochy said. “It was a tough strike zone tonight, both sides. You make your pitches, and you’re not getting them. That’s why I went out there, to make sure he was fine. He assured me he felt good, then he gave up another hit. I had no choice. It was mounting on him.”
When Bumgarner exited, he made a straight line to the dugout, not breaking stride even after Rehak ejected him.
“It wasn’t worth going over and making things worse,” Bumgarner said.
And to think, Bumgarner’s night started splendidly. He opened with three hitless innings, and the only blemish was an error by third baseman Evan Longoria on a grounder by Brian Anderson, the second batter.
Anderson continued to be a pain for the Giants. He got the Marlins’ first hit, a homer to begin the fourth, and also led off the sixth with a double. He scored two of the four runs charged to Bumgarner, who missed the first two months after breaking his pinkie on his left hand in the final Cactus League game in spring training.
“I thought he threw the ball well,” said Hundley, noting Anderson homered on a cutter down and away, “whether it was his second start or 15th start. They hit good pitches. He could’ve been deeper in the ballgame. He was forced into a high pitch count, unfortunately.”
With Bumgarner out of the game, the Marlins scored three seventh-inning runs off Reyes Moronta and Sam Dyson. Again, Anderson was in the middle of the action with his third extra-base hit, a double off Dyson that broke the tie.
J.T. Realmuto followed with a two-run homer.
The Marlins weren’t so scary early in the game. Aside from going hitless the first three innings, they engaged in a comedy of blunders in the fifth.
Manager Don Mattingly called for Wei-Yin Chen to intentionally walk Longoria to fill the bases even though the majors’ hottest hitter, Brandon Crawford, was on deck.
Yes, Chen throws lefty and Crawford hits lefty. But playing the matchup game against Crawford the past six weeks hasn’t been advisable.
So what happened? Chen balked home a run.
Then Mattingly had Chen intentionally walk Crawford. Then Mattingly lifted Chen. It wasn’t the cleanest sequence in history, but the Giants were fine with it. If that wasn’t enough, reliever Brad Ziegler issued a four-pitch, bases-loaded walk to Hundley.
Ball 4 easily could have been a strike, but that followed the theme of the night.
“There were a lot of borderline pitches I didn’t get,” Bumgarner said, “and I wasn’t able to come back and get in the zone very well. It’s tough when you’re 1-0, 2-0 to every guy.”