SAN FRANCISCO — Everything aligned for Saturday night to be Madison Bumgarner night.
He was pitching at AT&T Park, a safe haven where he’d allowed two runs or less in 18 of his last 19 starts. He was pitching on his bobblehead night, ironically depicting him as a hitter to celebrate last season’s Silver Slugger Award. He was pitching against the Phillies, losers in 16 of their last 18 games.
And It was Madison Bumgarner night for six innings. Then Cameron Rupp had his say. He skied a go-ahead home run to the kale garden in center field, flipping the script on a night too perfectly laid out for Bumgarner.
“You’ve gotta go out there and make pitches,” Bumgarner said, “no matter if it’s the first, third, fifth, seventh, whatever.”
The left-hander went above and beyond for four innings, facing the minimum before coming undone in a three-run seventh inning. That’s all the Phillies (32-44) needed to skirt past Bumgarner (8-4, 1.99 ERA) and the Giants (48-28), evening the series with a 3-2 win. The Giants have still won 12 of 14 games, but as baseball would have it, both one-run losses have been Bumgarner starts.
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Conversely, Johnny Cueto has received 25 runs of support in his last two outings. Bumgarner’s received four. Despite 40,000 swinging Bumgarner figurines in attendance, only the 6-foot-5, real-live version faced Jeremy Hellickson, and Bumgarner couldn’t push across a run despite reaching base twice.
“I haven’t seen it,” Bumgarner said of his bobblehead, “I don’t much care about the bobblehead right now.”
That’s because Bumgarner looked as good as he has all season, and still went home with his first home loss since April 20. He walked Peter Bourjos to start the game, but wiped that inning with a double play. When Joe Panik muffed an Andres Blanco ground ball, Bumgarner picked him off.
He struck out four hitters in his first trek through the Phillies lineup, all looking. It appeared like Bumgarner wouldn’t need much more than the Giants second and third-inning runs, but that was the team’s last gasp until a failed eighth-inning rally.
The Phillies were going down easy, even after Maikel Franco slashed his team’s first hit in the fifth inning. A wild pitch landed him on third base with nobody out, and Bumgarner ensured he never scored.
“You look at his game,” manager Bruce Bochy said, “and that’s a pretty good effort he gave us. He just made a mistake.”
The first came on a fastball to Joseph, which he clubbed for a leadoff double in the seventh inning. The second, and perhaps most regrettable, came when Blanco bounced a single through the middle. Bumgarner stabbed his glove at it, whiffing by inches.
“I don’t know how I missed it,” he added. “I thought I had it the whole way.”
The third mistake came to Rupp, as Bumgarner tried all he could not to put the go-ahead run on base. He fell behind 3-0, worked the count back full, and fired a fastball over the the plate that Rupp deposited 433 feet away.
It turned out to be Bumgarner’s last hitter, and he walked off the mound still to a chorus of cheers. A silver lining to a start that he’d like to have back. Because even on his night, he couldn’t find a way to win.