San Francisco Giants: Madison Bumgarner tosses another gem

There are a lot of question makes in the San Francisco Giants rotation right now. Veteran ace Madison Bumgarner is not one of them.

The San Francisco Giants were not supposed to be here in August. They were not supposed to be 60-60 and sitting just 3.5 games out of the second NL wild-card spot.

Madison Bumgarner was not supposed to still be pitching for the Giants. The southpaw was supposed to be pitching for the New York Yankees or the Minnesota Twins following an inevitable trade deadline blockbuster.

But here we are.

The Giants didn’t trade Bumgarner and fans should be thankful for that. It would have been painful for Giants fans to have watched Bumgarner go out and dominate for another team the way he’s dominated for the Giants in his past two starts.

In the Bay Bridge Series opener on Tuesday, Bumgarner turned in a masterpiece against the Oakland Athletics.

In seven innings of mastery, the southpaw gave up just two hits, with his one run allowed coming in the form of a home run off the bat of Stephen Piscotty. The only other hit allowed came  in the first inning when Marcus Semien hit a dying quail over first baseman Aramis Garcia’s head.

Aside from allowing just two hits, Bumgarner also racked up seven strikeouts through the first four innings and nine total on the night.

In his previous start against the Philadelphia Phillies, the franchise icon took the mound looking to snap a four-game losing streak, with their most recent previous win coming in his previous start. He did what aces do and stopped the slide, pitching seven shutout innings while yielding just one hit.

The Giants have now won nine of Bumgarner’s last 10 starts, and since that victory on Aug. 8 against the Phillies, the team appears to be back on track with three wins in their last four games.

The San Francisco Giants are only 3.5 games out and have plenty of work to do if they want to reach the postseason. With the way ace Madison Bumgarner is dealing, the Giants will have a puncher’s chance of shocking the baseball world.