NL’s worst division West is still absolutely fascinating
SAN FRANCISCO — Madison Bumgarner opened the door Tuesday afternoon to Giants manager Bruce Bochy’s office and immediately demanded to know what was going on.
“I just saw the lineup card,” Bumgarner said, “and I’m batting ninth? “Ninth? Are you kidding?” Bochy feigned surprise, conceded he wanted to bat him sixth but since Bumgarner was making his season debut was overruled by his coaching staff. Bumgarner laughed, walked out the door, but by the end of the evening still was hitless and winless, too.
Yet only in this wacky National League West could the Giants (30-31) entered Wednesday still under .500, outscored by 32 runs, and be smack in the middle of this division race.
“It’s bizarre,” Giants starter Jeff Samardzija says. “It’s just a crazy division right now.”
Where else could the Diamondbacks lose 13 of 14 games during their worst stretch in franchise history, still have the lowest batting average (.218) in all of baseball, but be sitting atop the division with a one-game lead over the Rockies?
Yes, the same Rockies who are 11-16 at home and baseball’s only team to be outscored (by 28 runs) and still have a winning record.
Two games back are the Dodgers. They got off to their worst start in franchise history, going 16-26, but gained four games in the standings by going 5-7 during a May stretch and reached .500 Tuesday, even with Clayton Kershaw contributing one win along the way.
There are the Giants, who have employed 22 pitchers, have gotten just four victories from their top three starters, have watched their hottest hitter (first baseman Brandon Belt) go down with appendicitis and keep pinching themselves that they are just 21⁄ games out.
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And there are the Padres, who have the third-worst offense in baseball, have struck out the second-most times, have been outscored by 47 runs and yet are just 51⁄ games out of first place.
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“I was talking to (Cubs closer) Brandon Morrow the other day,” Giants reliever Tony Watson said, “and he said, ‘Man, what is going on with your division?’ ”
A year ago, the NL West produced three playoff teams, combining for 284 victories, including a league-leading 104 victories from the Dodgers.
This year, the NL West has been outscored by 43 runs, with only two teams producing a winning record and no one on pace to win more than 86 games.
And yet no matter how dreadful it has looked, everyone is still alive.
“I still think it’s one of the top one or two divisions in baseball,” Bumgarner says, “but the records sure don’t show that right now. It’s just real weird.”
Perhaps the best explanation for the division’s collapse is that its biggest stars happen to be on the disabled list or underperforming:
❚ Kershaw, the Dodgers’ three-time Cy Young winner, is on the DL for the second time this season, joining fellow starters Hyun-Jin Ryu, Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill and Julio Urias; All-Star shortstop Corey Seager is out for the year; and
2017 Rookie of the Year winner Cody Bellinger, who hit 39 homers with 97 RBI and a .933 OPS last year, is hitting .225 with eight homers, 25 RBI and a .711 OPS.
❚ Arizona lost starter Taijuan Walker for the year; starter Robbie Ray has been on the DL for five weeks with an oblique strain; right fielder Stephen Souza has no homers and one RBI and is back on the DL; center fielder A.J. Pollock (broken thumb) has missed a month and will miss another; and perennial AllStar Goldschmidt is in the worst slump of his career, hitting .220 with eight homers and 20 RBI — including just .160 with a .599 OPS at Chase Field.
❚ The Rockies spent $106 million on their bullpen, yet veteran relievers Mike Dunn (7.88 ERA), Bryan Shaw (7.36 ERA) and Jake McGee (4.91 ERA) have yielded 112 baserunners in 671⁄ innings.
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Ace Jon Gray is 5-6 with a 5.68 ERA, and first baseman Ian Desmond is hitting
.193 with only three homers in 96 at-bats at Coors Field.
❚ The Giants have had nearly as many starts from Ty Blach (3-5,4.88) than the combined total from Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Samardzija; closer Mark Melancon has pitched just two innings; first baseman Belt, their leader with 11 homers and 31 RBI, went on the DL with appendicitis; and outfielder Hunter Pence (.177, no homers, three RBI) has missed 40 games.
❚ The Padres, who acquired veteran third baseman Chase Headley and his
$13 million salary to get their hands on pitcher Bryan Mitchell, released Headley a month ago after he hit .115 and booted Mitchell (0-3, 7.08 ERA) out of the rotation. First baseman Wil Myers, who was moved to the outfield to make room for free agent Eric Hosmer, has played 10 games. And catcher Austin Hedges, who hit 18 homers last year, is hitting .173 with two homers.
“We could have let this get away from us with all of the injuries and tough stretches,” Bochy says, “but to be where we’re at right now, we’re not happy with it, or content with it, but when you look at what we had to go through, you say, ‘OK, we’ll take it.’ ”