On Sunday, Madison Bumgarner became the first pitcher in MLB history to hit two home runs on Opening Day. However, Bumgarner had an excellent pitching performance, which was overshadowed by his performance at the plate. He touched 94 MPH several times against Arizona, something he didn’t do once in 2016.
Bay Area News Group Giants beat writer Andy Baggarly joined Tolbert and Lund to discuss why Monday’s start by their ace was a great positive for the Giants going forward.
“I thought that he probably had his best spring that he’s ever had,” Baggarly said. “And he’s always fighting his mechanics a little bit. Last year, he wasn’t comfortable with his mechanics all year and he posted career highs in innings and strikeouts and was fourth in the Cy Young.
“I mean, he could become to the Giants the essence of what (Clayton) Kershaw is to the Dodgers. It’s like, 85, 95 percent where you’re going to win that day. If he pitches like that all year, granted they lost yesterday, but I think you’ve got to look at a lot of things from that game that you could portend as big-time positives moving forward even though the end result wasn’t what anyone wanted.”
Listen to the full interview below.