Late Miami runs sink Giants, spoil sharp Bumgarner start

Giants ace Madison Bumgarner (ND, 9-8, 3.73 ERA) and Marlins righty Robert Dugger (ND 0-2, 3.95 ERA) protected a scoreless ballgame through six innings Saturday.

But the Giants have developed a very leaky bullpen in the last several weeks and Shaun Anderson (L, 3-5, 5.26 ERA), who earned his second career save in Friday’s win, gave up a pair of runs in the eighth from which the Giants could not come back in their 4-2 loss to the Marlins (52-96).

This story has been updated with quotes and post-game material from the Giants clubhouse at Oracle Park.

Bumgarner kept hitters consistently off-balance and kept himself to a low pitch count, never throwing more than 15 in an inning. He threw only 81 pitches overall, and had manager Bruce Bochy not been trying to add kindling to a seventh-inning rally, he likely could have pitched another inning or two. Said Bochy:

“If we had tied it before his spot would have come up, I’d have sent him back out there.”

The seventh-inning move to pull him paid off in the short-term, as Donovan Solano hit a bases-clearing triple to erase a two-run homer Bumgarner had surrendered. But it put a tight ballgame in the hands of an unreliable bullpen and it proved to be a backbreaker.

Anderson came into the tied tilt with one out in the eighth and got behind pinch-hitter Neil Walker right away before allowing a one-out double.

A batter later Miguel Rojas doubled off the left-field wall on a belt-high pitch over the plate for the go-ahead run.

Bochy was disappointed Anderson couldn’t come through as their setup man:

“We had one out and nobody on, we were just looking for short work there, a couple of hitters. But he just got the ball up and pitched in the middle of the plate tonight. Maybe it was a little adjustment to going back-to-back, I don’t know.”

Lewis Brinson provided an insurance run for Miami with an RBI single and Giants (71-78)  bats could not make up the deficit.

“My sliders didn’t have as much depth as they did yesterday, they were more like cutters and that’s what I got hurt on tonight. [Rojas’] ball to the wall was a slider, the one to Brinson was a slider. I think I just wasn’t getting out in front.”

Through the first six innings, Bumgarner allowed just two hits and Dugger three as each team battled to get on the board. 

But a switch went off when Miami tagged Bumgarner for two in the seventh.

With one out, he allowed his first hit since the fourth. It was just a weak roller up the middle that made its way into centerfield because the defense was shifted. But it would make the monstrous bomb that catcher Jorge Alfaro launched 473 feet with an exit-velocity of 109.5 mph into the left-field bleachers, hurt a little more.

The Marlins damage against Bumgarner prompted the Giants to answer back. They chased Dugger from the game after Brandon Crawford swatted a one-out single into the right-field corner in the bottom of the seventh and rookie Mauricio Dubón hit a bullet to left for a double to put Crawford on third.

Bochy put right-hander Chris Shaw in the on-deck circle for Bumgarner and then swapped him out for Solano when Marlins manager Don Mattingly opted to hook Dugger for southpaw Brian Moran. The bait and switch paid off when Solano knocked a triple off the wall in right-center to tie it up

But with two outs to play with the Giants failed to send Solano home and Jarlin García (W, 3-1, 2.76 ERA), who got the last out of the inning for Miami, took the win.

The Giants threatened in the ninth with back-to-back one-out singles off José Ureña (S, 2, 4-9, 4.97 ERA), but they failed to follow through yet again.

San Francisco has a 5-9 record this September.

Up Next

Sunday Johnny Cueto (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will make his second start since undergoing Tommy John surgery last August in the series finale with the Marlins at Oracle Park. He will face right-hander Elieser Hernández (3-5, 5.24 ERA) as he seeks to build off an excellent maiden voyage Tuesday against the Pirates in which he pitched five innings of one-hit, shutout ball for his first win since April 28, 2018. 

Notes

Dugger plunked Mike Yastrzemski on his left foot in the third on a back-foot slider and he appeared to be in significant pain. He shook it off after a couple of minutes and remained in the game until Bochy pinch-hit for him in the seventh. The skipper said there’s no concern about any lasting injury to Yastrzemski’s foot.

Julie Parker is SFBay’s San Francisco Giants beat writer. Follow @SFBay and @InsideThePark3r on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of Giants baseball.