Diamondbacks 2, Indians 6: LLLLLLLL

Record: 2-9. Change on 2019: -4.

Madison Bumgarner is a veteran enjoying his 11th spring training in the major leagues. So there was no angst or displeasure on his part with his outing today, despite putting his team in a 5-0 hole against the Indians before coming out of the game with two outs in the 3rd inning. Asked how he felt afterwards, he joked. “Like the 2nd start of spring”

Bumgarner gave up a triple in the first inning to left hander Mike Freeman, who roped a curveball into the corner down the line in right. Freeman later scored on a sac fly by Delino DeShields.

Madbum pitched a scoreless 2nd, striking out two, but ran into trouble in the 3rd. He began the inning by giving up a walk and a single, bringing up Francisco Lindor. Lindor hit a hanging slider up onto the berm in left for a three run homer and a 4-0 Giants lead. A couple of outs later Bumgarner gave up a single and his day was done after 47 pitches. That runner scored as well, and the final line for Bumgarner was an ugly 2.2 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO, and the homer.

His fastball was sitting around 89-91.

He was mostly satisfied to get his work in, feel good, yada yada. But his interview was not all typical spring stuff. He’s really interesting to listen to talking about pitching. The slider to Lindor registered at just 82 MPH and from game day it appeared like it was center cut. Asked about that location he said:

“It was probably inner 3rd, I would say. It was really on it’s way to being there ...when they swing they catch it out front a little more, so that changes where it would end up” Just something to keep in mind when we’re looking at locations on game day.

Madison Bumgarner audio [mobile link]

The DBacks “A” offense were all in this game with the exception of right field where Jon Jay got the start today over a resting Kole Calhoun. They went hitless in the first two innings against Indians starter Aaron Civale. In the bottom of the 3rd the D-backs got two runs back. They loaded the bases on singles by Carson Kelly and Seth Beer, followed by a HBP to Ketel Marte. Kelly scored on an Eduardo Escobar fielders choice, and Beer came home on a David Peralta sac fly .

The game was not without a few highlights. Escobar made a really nice stop and strong throw from deep in foul territory behind the bag in the 4th to retire Christian Arroyo.

Beer had another sharp base hit in 5th, this man can hit, no doubt about it. Beer Nuts indeed. Archie Bradley pitched an efficient 4th, needing just 9 pitches to induce three groundouts.

The best performance of the day belonged to lefty Alex Young. He pitched 3 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings, allowing just a lone base hit in the 7th to Christian Arroyo. He was promptly erased when Lindor hit into a 5-4-3 double play started by Wyatt Mathisen. Young needed just 42 pitches, (30 strikes) to retire the minimum 11 batters faced in his outing.

Kevin Cron got into the game, but K’d looking in his only at bat. He is now 0-17 with two walks and five strikeouts this spring. He’ll need to pick it up if he hopes to somehow make the opening day roster, which was a long shot to begin with.

It was the teams 8th loss in a row, once again with the team down early and the offense ineffective (5 hits, 1 Walk, 0-6 W/ RISP, 7 LOB) There were some positives in this game however. At least nobody got hurt. After the game, Torey was asked whether he was concerned about the offense.

Torey Lovullo audio [mobile link]