Bumgarner’s dominant in win over Philly
Sixteen nights after Oracle Park fans said goodbye to Madison Bumgarner, they got to say hello again to the lefthander in his first home start since a trade deadline that turned into just another Wednesday for the Big Fella.
Bumgarner responded with a “glad to be here” performance that pleased the crowd and gave his team the vitamin shot it needed after four straight losses.
He carried a nohitter into the sixth inning and allowed nothing more than a single over seven in Thursday night’s 50 victory in the first of four against the Phillies.
Trevor Gott and Will Smith completed the combined onehitter.
Bumgarner walked one and struck out three during his lowesthit start since a September 2016, game against the Dodgers. He also contributed a single to a threerun, thirdinning rally against Aaron Nola, Philly’s best starter. Mike Yastrzemski’s tworun double was the big hit.
Scooter Gennett’s oneout single in the sixth, off Nick Pivetta, started another rally that produced a run on a Pivetta wild pitch with Bumgarner at the plate.
Yastrzemski added a bigboy homer into the Arcade in rightcenter in the seventh, his 11th of the season. How many did Carl Yastrzemski hit in his rookie season, you ask? Eleven. Mike needs another 441 to match granddad’s career total.
Bumgarner had made one road start since the deadline before Thursday. He got a nodecision in Denver with a fiveinning outing that he called “poopy,” or a variation thereof, from beginning to end.
But in front of the home folks, who gave him a nice ovation to accompany “Fire on the Mountain,” Bumgarner retired his first 10 hitters before he walked Rhys Hoskins with one out in the fourth inning. A groundout and flyball followed.
Bumgarner got Cal alum Andrew Knapp on an easy fly to left for the first out of the sixth before Cesar Hernandez batted for pitcher Aaron Nola and lined a clean single to center.
Three pitches later, Bumgarner was out of the inning on Roman Quinn’s double play.
The Giants’ offense had little luck against three marginal Nationals starters and scored four runs over the previous three games, all Washington victories.
On Thursday, they drew a notmarginal starter. Nola had a 3.60 ERA. In seven of his nine prior games, he allowed no more than one run.
The Giants did not make contact fair or foul in the first inning, when Nola had a walk, two strikeouts and Brandon Belt thrown out trying to steal second on strike three to Buster Posey.
They made plenty of contact in the third inning, beginning with Brandon Crawford’s leadoff single from the eighth spot.
Bumgarner did not come to the plate to bunt, although he did square once. He took Nola to nine pitches and ripped a single to left. Belt’s single gave the Giants their first lead of the homestand, 10.
Yastrzemski made the rally pay off and killed it at the same time when he doubled off the base of the leftfield fence, the Giants’ fourth straight hit. Bumgarner and Belt scored for a 30 Giants lead, but Yastrzemski got caught between second and third.
The inning’s first out had to hurt, too. Scott Kingery smacked Yastrzemski in the head with the tag.
Bumgarner saw another six pitches when he walked to load the bases in the fourth, after Evan Longoria and Kevin Pillar singled.
The Giants’ chance to break the game landed on Belt, who had reached base twice but this time hit the first pitch softly to first for the final out. Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman