San Francisco Giants: Bumgarner Pitches Gem; Crawford Walks it Off

The San Francisco Giants continue their winning ways with a dramatic walk-off win over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night.

Wednesday’s game was a vintage San Francisco Giants performance. A dominant ace leaving the opposing team floundering, a stellar defense behind him making few mistakes, a well-managed bullpen keeping the game close late, and a timely hit securing the victory.

These are elements that were tenets of the Giants team that won the World Series three times.

Tonight, both offenses were anemic as the Giants were shut down by Kyle Freeland (7 innings, 4 hits allowed, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts) and the Rockies were similarly flustered by Madison Bumgarner (7 innings, 2 hits allowed, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts).

Bumgarner excelled tonight by executing each of his pitches throughout the strike zone. This Rockies lineup is no slouch either, as they have scored the sixth most runs in the majors so far this season.

Keeping them to just two hits and no runs was a truly remarkable feat. In the fourth inning, Nolan Arenado hit a ball that was about a foot away from being a homer, but Bumgarner rebounded and forced the third baseman to ground out to Brandon Crawford.

In fact, the only other real time when the lefty was in trouble was in the top of the fifth inning, when Bumgarner gave up a double to Carlos Gonzalez and proceeded to load the bases via walks.

He then was free to work out of the windup again and proceeded to strike out the opposing pitcher, Freeland, to escape the hairy situation.

After his performance today, he will have posted a 2.51 ERA with a superb 1.02 WHIP thus far in 2018. I think it’s safe to say that Bumgarner is back and Giants fans should be excited for the stretch run.

While Bumgarner succeeded in keeping the Rockies off the scoreboard, Crawford was the man to send everyone home in the bottom of the ninth inning.

With extra innings looming with one out in the inning, Crawford stepped up against newly-entered lefty Harrison Musgrave and pulled an inside off-speed pitch to Levi’s Landing.

His two-hit, walk-off performance further encapsulates a phenomenal All-Star-caliber season for the 31-year old shortstop.

Next: San Francisco Giants Pitching Leading to Positive June

With his bat as hot as it is and his defense being incredible, as per usual, Crawford has emerged as one of the leaders on the field for this Giants lineup, while Bumgarner continues to be the rock in the rotation for the Giants to trust every fifth game.