San Francisco Giants: Bumgarner Earns First Win in Rout of Pirates

The San Francisco Giants finally gave Madison Bumgarner run support, exploding for 10 runs in a blowout victory against the Pirates on Tuesday night.

For a team that has lacked excitement offensively a majority of the 2017 season, the runs came early and often for the San Francisco Giants in Tuesday night’s contest.

Want your voice heard? Join the Around The Foghorn team!

Write for us!

Buster Posey, one of the very few bright spots in an otherwise disastrous season for the Giants, led the second inning off with a single off of Jameson Taillon. Brandon Crawford followed with a single as well and Posey ended up scoring after Brandon Belt reached on a throwing error by first baseman Josh Bell, who had a rough night defensively to say the least.

Crawford was also able to advance to third on a fly out by Joe Panik and score on a Gorkys Hernandez ground out to Bell with one out, extending the lead to 2-0.

The 2012 MVP would lead the charge again in the bottom of the third, smacking a an RBI double to right field, scoring Denard Span, who led off the inning with a single. Eduardo Nunez also reached base on a hit by pitch and advanced to third on Posey’s double.

Crawford would also reach after being intentionally walked in hopes of setting up a double play. Then, with two outs in the inning, Panik cleared the bases on a triple to the right side and suddenly the rout was on.

More from Around the Foghorn

• SF Giants: Checking in on the Tony Watson trade
• San Francisco Giants fans need this Captain Brandon Belt shirt
• SF Giants: Brandon Belt’s surge has powered winning streak
• SF Giants hitting prospects week in review (8/28-9/10)
• SF Giants: Pitching depth bolstered with waiver claim

The Giants would not stop there, picking up right where they left off in the fourth inning. Bumgarner led the inning off with a single and Span followed with his second hit of the night. Nunez scored both of them on a double off the right field wall and thanks to some heads up base running, advanced to third on the throw.

Belt doubled as well, scoring Nunez in the process. Belt would then come around to score on a two out single by Hunter Pence, increasing the lead to 10-1.

The Pirates would get one run back in the fifth inning on an RBI single by David Freese. It would be the only run Bumgarner would give up in his five innings of work.

Chris Stratton, fresh off of being recalled from AAA Sacramento would take over from there, throwing the last four innings of the ball game, and in an odd scenario picking up his first career save. In those four innings, the young right hander gave up two runs.

The Giants would tack on another insurance run in the eighth inning on a double by Pence, before ultimately winning by a score of 11-3.

Notes:

Eduardo Nunez was taken out of the ball game in the fifth inning amid speculations that he has been traded. According to Ken Rosenthal, the versatile third baseman has been traded to the Boston Red Sox. The team has not yet made an official statement and it is not known who the Giants picked up in return.

Bumgarner finally picked up his first win of the season, which shows how odd of a season it truly has been. In his six previous starts, the ace has only received 10 runs of support. Oddly enough, the team exceeded that tonight by scoring 11. One concern is that Bumgarner’s velocity seemed to be down a bit, sitting around 90-91 MPH after sitting around 93-94 earlier in the year. Hopefully he is still just building up arm strength and this does not turn into a problem in the foreseeable future.

Next: Five Trades to Make Before the Deadline

The Giants will be back in action for a day game, as they take on the Pirates at 12:45 PM. Jeff Samardzija will match up against Trevor Williams.