Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants’ starting pitching has been otherworldly over the last nine games. With a seven-inning shutout performance from Madison Bumgarner, that trend continued. Combined with a walk-off, the Giants picked up a second-straight win over the Arizona Diamondbacks 1-0.
After an out opened the bottom of the ninth, Steven Duggar walked and Nick Hundley singled to give the Giants runners at first and second with one out. Duggar looked to hurt his shoulder returning to second, but remained in the game. Then Gorkys Hernandez ripped a single to left, scoring Duggar to win the game.
For nine straight games, the Giants have had starts of at least five innings with two or fewer earned runs. Every start but the first in that streak has lasted more than six innings.
Unlike many of the previous outings, Bumgarner’s stellar performance was by no means straightforward. A pair of errors and four walks complicated a classically Bumgarner night in which he repeatedly worked himself out of tight situations.
In the third, he worked out of an inning that started with a dropped line-drive by Brandon Crawford. In the fifth, he escaped after a leadoff double. An inning later, he allowed a leadoff single and a walk before loading the bases with one outs. He secured a force at home and a fly ball to center to close out the inning.
But Bumgarner’s most impressive feat likely came in the seventh. After striking out Clay Buchholz to open the inning, Austin Slater made a comically bad error in left field, dropping a straightforward fly ball before slipping on the ground, effectively allowing a triple to Jon Jay. Slater would laugh the error off after receiving sarcastic cheers from the crowd on a putout in the following inning, but only because of Bumgarner’s conclusion to the inning.
Bumgarner walked his next batter in AJ Pollock, leaving runners at the corners with one out. Then, he forced an infield popup from Paul Goldschmidt and got a groundout to end the inning.
The play of the game came in the following inning, after Bumgarner was replaced by Sam Dyson. Dyson secured a pair of outs with a single in-between them before Diamondbacks catcher Jeff Mathis stepped up. Mathis hit a shot into center field that Steven Duggar tracked down immediately. Duggar got the ball back to Brandon Crawford in a split-second and Crawford whipped it home to Nick Hundley, who tagged out Nick Ahmed at the plate comfortably.
In the bottom half of the eighth, the Giants received runners on first and second after a pair of one-out walks. Brandon Belt flew out to right field, allowing a pinch-running Chase d’Arnaud to tag at second and head to third. On the eighth pitch of a two-out at-bat, Crawford grounded out to end the inning.
Before the game, manager Bruce Bochy said he didn’t like the potential title of “spoiler.”
“I hope we’re not being called that now,” Bochy said. “I don’t know if we are or not, but I don’t like it. That just means it hasn’t gone very well for you.”
With the win, the Giants (67-67) are now back at .500 for the first time since August 15 with the win.