Bumgarner receives a quiet welcome back to San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO >> The cardboard cutouts did not grow legs, so there was no standing ovation. The piped-in crowd noise at Oracle Park on Saturday carried on at a steady hum, blissfully unaware one of the season’s most anticipated moments was taking place under its reverb.
The only noise at 6:15 p.m. Saturday was the pop of Madison Bumgarner’s first fastball reaching the back of his batterymate’s mitt for strike one, the most audible of any of his 141 first pitches thrown at Oracle Park, even having lost a couple miles an hour.
But it wasn’t Buster Posey on the receiving end of this one.
Moments earlier, Bumgarner emerged from the visitor’s first-base dugout in a gray uniform emblazoned with Arizona across the front, the visual representation of the five-year, $85 million contract he signed with the Diamondbacks this offseason.
It has not been the season either side envisioned when they inked the deal in December.
Bumgarner had allowed 18 runs in 17 1/3 innings this season entering Saturday, while the Diamondbacks, in the NL West cellar, were baseball’s biggest sellers at the trade deadline. Bumgarner gave up two homers in four innings of work Saturday.
Back in the ballpark where he gained so much glory, there was no escaping the troubles that have plagued Bumgarner’s first season in the desert.
Evan Longoria made sure the welcome on the field was no warmer than cardboard crowd’s on a 1-1 cutter Bumgarner left middle-in. Longoria turned on it and plopped the baseball just below the advertisements in the left-field bleachers. To drive home the message, Darin Ruf followed by sending a dinger soaring over the centerfield fence.
It was otherwise a quiet return to the mound for Bumgarner, who allowed the two runs and three hits, along with two strikeouts, in his first three innings Saturday.
In a normal season, Bumgarner likely would have already made his return, greeted by tens of thousands of fans packed together, attempting to
recreate the energy on the banks of Mccovey Cove and pay tribute to a franchise icon.
One thing was abundantly clear this is anything but a normal season — and it’s a long journey from that October night at Kauffman Stadium in 2014.
In the apex of an 11-year career in San Francisco, the lanky left-hander embraced his catcher on the mound in Kansas City after recording the final 15 outs of a dynasty’s third World Series title in five years.
On that night in October 2014, Pablo Sandoval squeezed the last out in his glove and Posey rushed toward the mound, where Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt and the rest of the roster piled on top of each other.
Six years later, Sandoval, Belt and Crawford are the only remnants of that final World Series roster. Current manager Gabe Kapler said he watched that memorable Game 7 but didn’t recall any specific memories.
Posey opted out of the coronavirus-stricken 2020 season, meaning there was no reunion Saturday between the longtime batterymates.
Instead, Bumgarner fired his first strike Saturday night past Austin Slater and into the glove of Diamondbacks catcher Daulton Varsho.
Slater, a three-year teammate of Bumgarner’s in San Francisco, said he would try to treat it like any other atbat, but he had to acknowledge
the history.
“I’ve talked hitting with him,” Slater said before the game. “Obviously there’s a familiarity there.”
Soon thereafter, Bumgarner’s first pitch sailed past Slater, and a reunion that had taken a surreal turn took its place in the official history books, SLATER’S RETURN >> Bumgarner wasn’t the only familiar face to make his return Saturday.
Slater was penciled in to see the first pitch out of Bumgarner’s left hand, batting leadoff in his first game back from a twoweek stay on San Francisco’s injured list.
“I’m gonna try to treat it just like any other at bat and stick to my game plan,” Slater said prior to Saturday’s game. “Obviously there’s a familiarity there. I’ve talked hitting with him before. It’ll be a good battle, and I’m looking forward to it.”
To make room, the Giants optioned fellow outfielder Steven Duggar to their alternate training site in Sacramento.
With Slater, the Giants add a key platoon piece back to their roster after an 11-game absence, but Kapler said he wasn’t an option yet in the outfield. Slater had been one of the most productive hitters in a breakout San Francisco lineup this season before straining his groin two weeks ago. In 49 at-bats, Slater is batting .349 with four home runs and a teamhigh six stolen bases.