Madison Bumgarner has never been one to obsessively watch movies or study opponents before launch. He prefers to read clubs in the box to see where they put their hands and feet, and how they attack his cutter as it digs into their hands.
He did the same on Saturday night on his return to Oracle Park, which was nowhere near as familiar as it had been in years past. After a 4-3 defeat by the Giants, Bumgarner spoke of working through matchups with Darin Ruf, who he last saw at the Philadelphia Phillies years ago, before Ruf went to South Korea. He talked about reading The Swing by Daniel Robertson, a former Tampa Bay Ray who joined the Giants earlier this week. And then he caught himself.
“I pretty much hadn’t seen any of them, I guess,” said Bumgarner.
This was a completely new experience, and along with the newcomers, Bumgarner was trying to figure out what to throw at with longtime teammate and friend Brandon Belt and Joey Bart, a rising star who caught Bumgarner’s first bullpen session last spring.
There weren’t nearly as many matchups as Bumgarner had hoped. On his first start from the injured list, Bumgarner was limited to 72 pitches, which got him through just four innings. He gave up two runs with consecutive homers from Evan Longoria and Ruf but said he was overall satisfied. This was a step forward from his first four starts for the Diamondbacks.
“I’m pretty happy with it,” said Bumgarner. “I’ll throw more than four innings – have to throw – but where we are and where we come from, that’s what we had today. I feel pretty good about it.”
The early hook meant Bumgarner only got two matchups with Bart, who may have become one of his most trusted teammates in an alternate universe. When Bart showed up for his first major league camp last spring, Bumgarner walked up to him on the first day of the bullpen sessions and pointed to the first hill.
“Let’s go on No. 1,” he said.
That could have been the beginning of a long working relationship. Bumgarner wanted to help break the top prospect, but 10 months later the Diamondbacks came with the best deal. Bumgarner and Bart share similar personalities on the field – especially winning – but they will now be opponents as long as Bumgarner is a diamondback.
Bumgarner had his way in the first two games. In the second inning, he made progress by tossing a fastball at Bart’s hands and then putting it down with a raised fastball. Two innings later, Bumgarner did what he has been doing for over a decade, throwing his cutter at a right-handed man and getting Bart to gently step out with two.
Bart said his first night before Bumgarner was “a little uncomfortable”.
“It was just weird. I have no other way to explain it,” he said with a smile. “Obviously he’s tossing from another arm slot. That might have been a little weird. I might have been a little overwhelmed looking at him. He’s very good. Facing Madison Bumgarner will never be an easy blow. Obviously everyone.” know, that.”
Bart, who later met a triple to make a crucial insurance run possible, said the overall experience was pretty cool. He lamented the fact that he would never face the old version of Bumgarner thrown in the mid-1990s, noting that “it would have been even worse”.
Bumgarner was mostly around 89 mph that night, which was the norm for him this year. He didn’t have enough in his tank to dominate his old teammates, and the Giants scored the two early runs and deemed it a necessary win.
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Bumgarner went to the visiting clubhouse after the fourth, and before that there was no sign of feeling the nostalgia. This is not the year for that. Bumgarner said he was trying to shift focus from what this meant other than just being a baseball game, his first in almost a month.
“I still feel like I would have done that if people could have come to the games, but no doubt it would have been more difficult,” he said. “That’s my goal, to go out like this.”
