USA TODAY International Edition
Ace’s injury puts Giants in bind
Bumgarner’s crash comes with team already reeling
SAN FRANCISCO Call it a dirtbike fall, a fall from grace, a downfall, whatever the term, there will be lingering fallout for the San Francisco Giants from Madison Bumgarner’s ill- fated off- day adventure last week in Colorado.
Entering Monday with a National League- worst 6- 13 record, the Giants were off to their lousiest 19- game start in more than a century, matched only by the 1983 team, which finished fifth in the NL West.
Even when he wasn’t scheduled to pitch last weekend against the Colorado Rockies, it would be naïve to suggest the demoralizing loss of Bumgarner to a left shoulder injury had nothing to do with the Giants getting swept at Coors Field while being outscored 26- 8.
Now the impact of Bumgarner’s absence will be felt more directly beginning Tuesday, when he was supposed to oppose Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in one of those fasci- nating duels that can help define a season.
Instead it will be rookie lefthander Ty Blach taking the mound for the Giants as they try to keep their spiral from accelerating to the point they can’t reverse course. As they say, you can’t win a championship in April, but you can lose it.
Mindful of their shaky status, the Giants made some drastic moves Monday, promoting top prospect Christian Arroyo and veteran outfielder Drew Stubbs and inserting them into a reshaped lineup that surprisingly had Hunter Pence in the leadoff spot.
Arroyo, 21, was leading the Class AAA Pacific Coast League with a .446 batting average while sporting a robust 1.171 on- base plus slugging percentage in 16 games. He was to make his major league debut Monday, hitting sixth and playing third base.
Only weeks ago, such desperate measures would have seemed inconceivable for one of the game’s elite franchises, an organization that has won three World Series titles this decade and addressed its biggest weakness by signing closer Mark Melancon in the offseason.
“It’s probably a little sooner than we were thinking about,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Arroyo’s promotion, “but when you struggle a little bit the way the team’s been struggling, some- times you try to shake things up, and he’s swinging the bat as well as anybody.”
But a combination of poor performances — San Francisco’s starters have the majors’ worst ERA at 5.02, and their offense is averaging less than 3.7 runs per game — and unforeseen events have led to the dreadful start.
All- Star catcher Buster Posey was beaned in the home opener and missed a week. Left fielder Jarrett Parker broke a collarbone making a catch. Shortstop Brandon Crawford has been dealing with a death in the family.
The void created by Bumgarner’s injury — initially deemed a Grade 1 or 2 sprain of the AC joint — has compounded the club’s troubles and raised concerns about its long- term impact. The team expected to have a better sense of how long Bumgarner would miss after an examination Monday, but two months seems like a conservative estimate.
The four- game series against the Dodgers that was scheduled to begin Monday has the potential to lift the Giants out of their morass — they typically get up for these rivalry matchups, and the usual sellout crowds were expected to be stoked — or to further sink them in a division that looks more competitive than expected, with the Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks occupying the top two spots.