SF Giants Press Clips Monday, March 19, 2018

Transcription

1 SF Giants Press Clips Monday, March 19, 2018 San Francisco Chronicle Giants see vintage Madison Bumgarner on the mound and at the plate Henry Schulman SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. The last time the sun rose on a day that Madison Bumgarner was supposed to face the Rockies, the Giants and their fans instead learned that he had separated his pitching shoulder the previous day while dirt-biking in the foothills near Denver. Bumgarner already proved upon his return that his arm healed fully. Any angst that remained should have disappeared with the way he pitched this spring, particularly Sunday, when he got his date with the Rockies in his penultimate spring game. Bumgarner dominated Colorado s everyday lineup (minus catcher Chris Iannetta) for six innings and hit a 445-foot home run off new setup man Bryan Shaw. Pretty nice job by Bum, you think? manager Bruce Bochy said after the Giants won 13-0 at Salt River Fields. Bumgarner stressed this was still a practice game and he cannot even trick himself into pretending that it meant something, even though I would like to sometimes. However, Bumgarner s body of work this spring suggests that he still has the tools at age 28 to remain one of the majors best pitchers. He held the Rockies to a Trevor Story double and two walks and would have started the seventh after his homer in the top half had the four-run inning not taken so long. Bumgarner s ERA over five starts is 2.84, and he leads the Cactus League with 27 strikeouts in 19 innings. 1

2 He looks great, right fielder Andrew McCutchen said. His velo looks good. I know when we played the Cubs, he was at 93. Today, he was around 90, 91, but he was locating well, working all of his pitches well. It seemed like he was keeping everybody off balance. I guess he hit a homer, too. McCutchen was in the shower when the clubhouse TV showed Bumgarner losing Shaw s 2-0 fastball into the berm. Left fielder Gerardo Parra did not even move at the crack of the bat. Bumgarner gave reporters the old I just ran into it, but some of his cuts over the past two games suggest he was looking for it. Well, it doesn t count, Bumgarner said. I don t really want to waste them, either. Longoria s trust: The Giants cracked 18 hits and four homers against minor-league starter Sam Howard and relievers Shaw, Scott Oberg and Yency Almonte. The Rockies had major-league left-hander Kyle Freeland pitch in a minor-league game to hide him from the Giants, as teams often do in spring training against division opponents. The Giants have not seen many top-echelon starters this spring. They have faced a lot of Triple- A arms and back-end big-league starters such as the Cubs Tyler Chatwood and the A s Andrew Triggs. The best they have seen is Seattle s James Paxton, twice. That poses an small issue for Evan Longoria, who has not gotten to see many of the best starters he must tackle for the first time after changing leagues. It only takes a couple of times to see a guy and know what he has, Longoria said. Probably the first time through the league, there s going to be a lot more selective at-bats from me, seeing more pitches and just going back to look at video and put that in my memory bank until the next time. Longoria will have to trust the scouting reports from teammates, like the one he got from Nick Hundley before facing Oberg in the sixth inning and hitting a double. MLB.com Bumgarner blasts 445-foot HR in spring game Chris Haft SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- As usual, Madison Bumgarner applied the proper perspective to the afternoon's events, which in this case was the Giants' 13-0 Cactus League shellacking of the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. Bumgarner delivered one of his familiar tour de force performances that few other contemporary pitchers are capable of recording. The left-hander not only surrendered one hit 2

3 in six innings but also clobbered a seventh-inning home run -- which traveled a projected 445 feet, per Statcast -- off Colorado reliever Bryan Shaw. It was among four homers the Giants amassed against the Rockies, one of three National League West teams to reach last year's postseason while precipitating San Francisco's fall to a mark. Following his multifaceted excellence, Bumgarner displayed the excitement of a man who had just emptied the trash. "I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that this was a regular-season game," said Bumgarner, who will start San Francisco's 2018 opener on March 29 at the Dodgers. "You can't, because in the back of your mind you know that this is Spring Training and you're here to work on stuff." Bumgarner had nothing in particular to refine against the Rockies. "We didn't have any one thing to work on today," he said after becoming the first Giant to last six innings this spring. "We just worked on a little bit of everything. Sometimes, there wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason. We just made sure to throw everything in every spot." Bumgarner, who leads all active Major League pitchers with 17 home runs, reacted to his round-tripper with similar aplomb. "I wouldn't read too much into it," he said. "It doesn't count." Yet given the Rockies' stature and the fact their lineup featured most of their regulars, the Giants could derive satisfaction from looking more like a complete ballclub. "When you're facing a lineup like the Rockies, it's pretty solid all the way through," Bumgarner said. "It keeps you on your toes." The Giants were knocked on their heels Saturday, when they dropped a pair of split-squad games, including an 8-3 decision to Oakland in which they coughed up four unearned runs. This time, San Francisco out-hit Colorado, 18-3, as veteran newcomers Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria combined for five hits. "It's good to bounce back and play a clean game," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. Bumgarner was cleanest of all, throwing 49 strikes in 77 pitches. "He looked pretty incredible," left fielder Hunter Pence said. "He was just being Bum, competing." In 19 innings, spanning five exhibition starts, Bumgarner has allowed 15 hits, walked three and 3

4 struck out 27. "He's pretty much what I expected," McCutchen said. "I'm just happy he's my teammate." MLB.com McCutchen happy with timing after big game Chris Haft SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Andrew McCutchen indicated that he's ready for the regular season with Sunday's lively effort in the Giants' 13-0 Cactus League victory over the Colorado Rockies. Starting on back-to-back days for the first time this spring, San Francisco's right fielder went 3- for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. "Getting in that groove, having my timing feels good," McCutchen said. "I feel like I stayed on some pitches well today." That included a first-inning double high off the center-field batter's eye at Salt River Fields. McCutchen's drive was just as impressive as any of the Giants' four homers -- Hunter Pence's one-out clout in the first inning, Pablo Sandoval's three-run drive in the fifth inning and the seventh-inning homers added by Madison Bumgarner and Nick Hundley. "I didn't see it," McCutchen said of his double. "I heard it." Sandoval, who's batting.306, collected four RBIs while playing first base. Manager Bruce Bochy did not rule out the possibility of using Sandoval at first to give Brandon Belt occasional breaks. That would more likely occur against a left-handed starter. The switch-hitting Sandoval insisted that he's much more comfortable batting right-handed than he was in recent years, when shoulder problems interfered with his swing from that side. Pence's homer continued his recent resurgence. His batting average has risen to.294. "My body feels good," he said. "This time of spring, it's time to start turning it on." Up next Right-hander Johnny Cueto will make his final Cactus League tuneup on Monday when the Giants entertain Cleveland at Scottsdale Stadium for a 1:05 p.m. PT start. Right-hander Josh Tomlin will start for Cleveland. The game can be seen on a video webcast or heard on an audio webcast. 4

5 The Athletic Target practice: Advantages to joining the Giants abound for Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria Andrew Baggarly SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Evan Longoria knew it. Andrew McCutchen knew it too well. Retaliation is by nature a sore subject, even if there aren t always hard feelings. When you are the Face of the Franchise, you are expected to turn the other cheek. Whether a series gets snippy or one of your pitchers misses too far inside a time or three or the opposing club simply feels the need to send a message, the intended recipient is usually the star in the middle of your lineup. Because the Pirates had a reputation for throwing inside over the past few years, and because the NL Central might be the chippiest division in the major leagues, McCutchen absorbed his share of plunkings. He took one from a current Giants teammate, Johnny Cueto, in a game against the Reds at the end of the 2014 season that had Pirates manager Clint Hurdle fuming. Two months earlier, the Diamondbacks Randall Delgado fractured one of McCutchen s ribs with a pitch. And there was the time after getting hit in Atlanta when McCutchen joked, Maybe I need to dropkick a pitcher. Maybe that will scare them into not throwing at me. For the better part of a decade in Tampa Bay, Longoria was the Rays obvious target for retribution. A dust-up between then-rays ace David Price and Red Sox slugger David Ortiz escalated into a pitch whizzing past Longoria s ear flap. One time after things got heated in a game with the Blue Jays, Longoria wore a fastball to the hip from Marco Estrada his friend and former college teammate at Long Beach State. Yeah, he got me, recalled Longoria, with no animosity in his voice. It was one of those situations you kind of expected it. And you know, I ve never been mad if it s done the right way. If a guy throws at your head, it s different. Those situations can be handled even without a hitby-pitch, just brush a guy back or send a message the right way. McCutchen mirrored Longoria s shrug of the shoulders. It s part of the game, McCutchen said. I don t think about that. That comes and goes. It just always has been that way. It s part of life. That s what happens. You get hit, you get hit. Move on and deal with it. Although Bruce Bochy doesn t have a reputation for favoring frontier justice, the Giants are no different from any other club. Last year, after a Taijuan Walker fastball to the helmet sent Buster Posey to the concussion disabled list, the next day included a Jeff Samardzija fastball to Paul Goldschmidt s hindquarters. Goldschmidt took his base without complaint. 5

6 I mean, there s an understanding of the way the game is played, Longoria said. But that aspect of the game, I think a lot of it has gone away, and for good reason. Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt. There are times where if you have to protect somebody, I guess it just has to be done. But I think everybody is cognizant of the fact they don t want to hurt anybody and there s a right and a wrong way to do those things. Whether they tolerate it or not, whether you view it as a necessary part of enforcing the code or a juvenile way to dispense justice, it must be nice for them to know that neither of the Giants new additions will be the obvious choice to receive those payback pitches. A deeper lineup has its advantages. They ll just have to pick somebody in the middle of the order, Longoria said. To me, that s just an opportunity to score more runs, if that s the case. The Giants scored plenty in Sunday s 13-0 exhibition victory over the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields. Longoria was 2 for 4 with a double to raise his average to.346. McCutchen had three hits including a double that smacked 15 feet up the wall at the 410-foot marker in center field, raising his average to.345 Good thing I didn t see it, said McCutchen, because I would ve been trotting around the bases. There was some of that, too. Nick Hundley hit a double off the top of the wall and followed up with a deep home run. Hunter Pence s solo shot landed even further up the grass berm beyond the left field fence. Pablo Sandoval hit a left-handed home run and drew a walk from both sides of the plate. And yes, Madison Bumgarner now officially has one more spring home run than the Angels Shohei Ohtani after going deep against right-hander Bryan Shaw, one of the Rockies primary investments this past winter. Bumgarner did pretty OK on the mound, too. He held the Rockies to one hit in six shutout innings while striking out five. Obviously, Bum is ready, Longoria said. Not that anybody thought he wasn t going to be. But just for his confidence and everybody else to see, 'Hey, our guy is dialed in and ready to go, that s a pretty good feeling. He pretty much did whatever he wanted today with the ball, and I mean, he hit a home run too. It s just an exhibition game, and the Rockies stuck mostly prospects on the mound, and yet Bochy still found it heartening to see what kind of damage his lineup could inflict on a day without Posey in there. 6

7 How many times over the years did Bochy sit down with his blank lineup card, fully understanding that catcher Posey needed the day off, and silently sobbed, knowing he didn t have enough threats in the middle of the order? We had pretty good 3-4 hitters today, and you look how Hundley is swinging the bat, too, Bochy said. It s a different lineup without Buster. Bochy hasn t put a target on the number of starts he envisions for Posey behind the plate, but it figures to be more than the 99 games he caught last season. The Giants had to put Posey at first base more often in the second half out of necessity because Brandon Belt was on the concussion list. They might not need Posey at first base as often this season, because Sandoval s healthier righthanded swing and the solid defense he has displayed at the position this spring should make him an attractive option on days when Belt rests against a tough left-handed pitcher. And besides, the way Belt is swinging the bat this spring, he probably won t sit too often. That means more full days off for Posey, and a chance to keep him fresher through the bumps and bruises of the season. However those bruises occur. 7