Madison Bumgarner Has One-Hit Shutout In Giants’ 4-0 Win Over Dbacks

Madison Bumgarner struck out 14 batters and pitched a one-hit complete game to lead the San Francisco Giants to a 4-0 home victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday night.

Madison Bumgarner Has One-Hit Shutout In Giants’ 4-0 Win Over Dbacks

The left-hander took his latest no-hitter attempt into the eighth inning. However, Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb ended the pursuit with a one-out single. Bumgarner walked Rickie Weeks, Jr. to open the ninth, but after Nick Ahmed popped out, the ace, whose 14 strikeouts tied his career best, induced a double play to give San Francisco their Majors-best 57th win heading into the All-Star break.

“When you get through seven and you go up there and got six more outs to go, you feel like you got a pretty good chance,” said Bumgarner, who has now recorded four one-hitters in his career. “It hasn’t worked out for me, I’ll take the complete game shutout any time.”

Bumgarner enters the All-Star break with 10 victories and 146 strikeouts so far in 2016.

“This guy has just amazed us with what he’s done,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “Nothing surprises us with what he does and how he elevates his game and gets even better.”

Sunday marked the first time Lamb had faced Bumgarner in his career. Lamb ended Bumgarner’s no-hit bid in the top of the eighth after lining a drive to right field. However, Bumgarner said nothing changed about his approach after pitching out of the stretch for just the second time all night. The ace didn’t let a runner get into scoring position.

Arizona have now lost 12 of their last 14 games, and nine of their last 10 matchups against the Giants, who have won their last four games, including a three-game home sweep of the D-backs.

The Giants offense provided an early cushion for Bumgarner in the bottom of the first, after Denard Span and Angel Pagan opened the inning with consecutive base hits. Catcher Buster Posey hit an RBI single a few at-bats later, and Brandon Crawford added one more with a sacrifice fly to score Pagan.

Just one day earlier, in the fourth inning of the Giants’ 4-2 win over the D-backs, Posey nearly hit Giants right-hander Jake Peavy, but instead tossed the ball right into Peavy’s hand while he wasn’t looking for an incredible lob throw. The ace had turned away from home plate to argue a call made by the umpire at third.

The Arizona defense struggled in the opening inning of Sunday’s game. Left fielder Brandon Drury seemed to have misread Span’s fly ball to lead off the first, and it fell for a single. Pagan then followed with a deep fly ball to center that Michael Bourn got turned around on, and the ball fell just behind him for a double. Both Span and Pagan scored.

The Giants (57-33, 1st in NL West) have the best record in baseball at the break for just the second time in the San Francisco era. They also did it in 1993 with a 59-30 mark.

The D-backs (38-52, 5th in NL West) next open the second half of the season Friday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers at home. The Giants, meanwhile, will visit the San Diego Padres on Friday night.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – JULY 10: Madison Bumgarner #40 of the San Francisco Giants pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the top of the first inning at AT&T Park on July 10, 2016 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Article by Pablo Mena