Madison Bumgarner can be forgiven for looking at the calendar and expecting to see February 2. Yeah, that's a "Groundhog Day" reference because so far this season he's been treated as poorly as he was a year ago.
On opening day the bullpen was handed a lead, which it promptly blew. On Saturday, despite a shaky start, MadBum limited San Diego to two runs only to see the offense let him down.
The Giants were limited to just five hits and the offensive highlight was a long foul ball by Buster Posey in the ninth as San Francisco fell to 1-5 with 2-1 loss at San Diego, further cementing their spot in the NL West cellar.
Bumgarner gave up single runs in each of the first two innings but deserved a better fate. The Giants' ace allowed six hits, striking out five while going the eight-inning distance. It was the bats that didn't show up.
Scoring runs had not been a problem for the Giants but on a night that they got the pitching they so desperately craved, they couldn't dent journeyman starter Jhoulys Chacin. He tore through the San Francisco lineup like an F-5 through a trailer park, and only back-to-back hits from Posey and Brandon Crawford with two out in the ninth against the Padres' bullpen kept the Giants from putting up their first goose egg of the year.
On the bright side, for the first time all year the Giants pitching staff did not surrender a lead. Kinda hard to give up something you never had, I guess.
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| At least this guy was pretty good. (NBCBA via Twitter) |
It's a familiar refrain for Bumgarner, who has taken over the mantle of hard luck hurler from one-time workhorse Matt Cain. Over his still relatively-short career, Bumgarner has thrown 15 complete games; he's lost six of them.
This marks only the fourth time in franchise history the Giants have lost five of their first six and first time they've done so since 2008 when they lost 90 games. This is not the look of a contender.
He problems aren't hard to pinpoint. Pitchers have been blowing leads in wholesale fashion and each of the starters has been involved. The bullpen is as compromised as ever. Closer Mark Melancon, the one significant off-season addition, has appeared in exactly one game; blowing his only save opportunity.
The outfield is providing little. Hunter Pence is batting .316 but has driven in just one run..Oft-injured Denard Span continues to disappoint in both production and attendance, Left field has been an unmitigated disaste, providing exactly no hits in the campaign's first week despite a rotating crew of hopefuls.
Right now it's a SportsCenter highlight if a Giants leftfielder produces a two-hopper to shortstop.
The recent signings of reliever Ryan Webb and outfielders Drew Stubbs and Melvin Upton Jr., all recently released, shows the depth of the Giants' desperation. It leaves a person to wonder why these glaring deficiencies went inaddressed to the off-season when they were actually good players available. Now the Giants are looking at castoffs and trying to catch lightning in a bottle.
So what now? Despite the angina-inducing first week, there is still a great deal of baseball left to be played. The question is whether the Giants are gonna figure this out or if this is who they are.
Only time will tell, but the initial glance hasn't been pretty.
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