If the Brewers don't want Jonathan Sanchez after his 6 walk outing yesterday, perhaps Madison Bumgarner got their attention. But after that performance, it better take a lot for Brian Sabean to send away his 20 year old lefty. That was impressive.
Bumgarner went 8 strong innings, giving up only 3 hits while walking 3, and retiring 10 in a row at one point. It was a very quiet night in Milwaukee for Brewers fans. They never really had a real chance to score in this game. Bumgarner was completely in control. I can't help notice the same calm composure in him that I see in Posey. It gives me the confidence that both will be successful major leaguers. Not to mention we now have a hitting pitcher. I've always wanted one of those!
The offense got help once again from the Brewers defense in the 6th inning, and were able to take advantage and score 5 runs. Despite some 9th inning weirdness by Denny Bautista, the Giants were able to finish the game off.
Travis Ishikawa might be the guy to convince Sabean that Corey Hart should stay in Milwaukee. If he continues to play this way, he should play everyday at first, period. And I am a big Ishikawa doubter. But he's performed all season in his limited time, and he isn't slowing down. The big hit in the game was his line drive in the 6th that scored 2 runs. He waited on that Randy Wolf breaking ball like Penelope waited twenty long years for Odysseus.
I know lots of Giants fans feel that Bumgarner is a step down from Sanchez, so if we traded Sanchez our starting pitching would not be as good. And, yes, Sanchez is proven, Bumgarner is not. But I can't help but feel that he's going to be a pretty damn good pitcher who can be even better than Sanchez in the next 1-2 years.
ReplyDeleteFor a guy who is just 20, he has great command and great composure. That is a HUGE thing to have command, because as we've seen with Sanchez, a guy with good stuff and inconsistent command, can have lots of issues.
And wow, he hasn't lasted less than 7 innings this year. That's huge too.