Bumgarner one pitch from perfection.
8th-inning single only baserunner off Bumgarner
It was Madison Bumgarner’s turn. He was due, wasn’t he? His time had come to participate in a celebrated Giants tradition.
An organization with five no-hitters since 2009 just had to include Bumgarner, the postseason legend, the man who once fixed the team bus on the side of the road, the 6foot-5, 235-pounder who strikes fear into hitters and sometimes his own manager, who jokes about being afraid to remove him from games.
Well, Bumgarner must wait a while longer. His bid for a perfect game and no-hitter was dashed Saturday night when Melvin Upton Jr. hit a sharp single to center with two outs in the eighth inning. Bumgarner settled for just another win, his 18th.
The Giants beat the Padres 8-0, and Bumgarner received several standing ovations, the most heartwarming coming immediately after he surrendered Upton’s hit, a sign of respect and affection from 41,564 fans who dig Bumgarner and his value during the three championship runs.
“You just feel like it’s a matter of time with him,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Bumgarner, who has three one-hitters. “He’s been so close.”
First baseman Brandon Belt said, “You just know it’ll happen in the future sometime. You’re just waiting on it.”
Bumgarner laughed when he heard that.
“I don’t mean to come off like I don’t care, but I’m not here to throw perfect games or nohitters or any of that,” he said. “It would definitely be special, no doubt about it. But my main concern is winning games, and that’s it. Nothing’s going to get in the way of that, definitely not a personal accomplishment.
“I’m just as happy with what we got.”
Bumgarner has four more starts to become the Giants’ first 20-game winner since Bill Swift and John Burkett in 1993. He’s showing no signs of fatigue based on his latest 111-pitch, nine-strikeout effort in which his fastball, touching 93 mph, remained intact all night.
In the later innings, the huge deficit between the first-place Dodgers and Giants wasn’t a consideration. It was all about Bumgarner working his magic with catcher Buster Posey. “It was the ol’ Bum, just awesome,” Belt said.
Bumgarner struck out Wil Myers to open the seventh, and Derek Norris hit a sizzling liner to second baseman Kelby Tomlinson, who was positioned perfectly, not far from the bag. Matt Kemp grounded to shortstop Ehire Adrianza, subbing for injured Brandon Crawford.
Adrianza threw out Justin Upton from the hole for the first out in the eighth, and Jedd Gyorko popped to right fielder Marlon Byrd, who seemed a bit fooled before making a twohanded catch. The other Upton then crashed the party.
“I wanted to throw a strike there. I just missed two in a row,” Bumgarner said of his fateful 2-1 fastball. “I don’t want the first baserunner to walk, so I’m going to come right at you.’
The Giants scored seven runs across the fourth and fifth innings, beginning with Marlon Byrd’s two-out fly ball that was misplayed by Justin Upton in left. Tomlinson legged out a triple on a liner to left-center.
Angel Pagan opened the fifth with a homer down the line in right, his second of the season and first at home. Byrd capped the rally with a run-scoring single, his third hit and third RBI. In the seventh, Belt popped one into the arcade, his career-high 18th homer of the season.