Snake Pit Sim Season: 6/29 - Bumgarner Gets It Done

Chris Archer continues to have a very good bounce-back season for the Philadelphia Phillies. On this day though, his best efforts simply were not enough. Madison Bumgarner was in prime form on Monday, needing only 100 pitches to fly through eight innings of one-run ball. And fly, he did. The left-hander only struck out five in this outing, however, he once again showed his ability to control the strike zone, limiting walks and getting weak contact from painting the edges.

Arizona’s offense showed some signs of life in this game. It was still not the resounding sort of outing one might hope for, but four runs on eight hits and two walks is a step in the right direction. Bumgarner joined teammates, Nick Ahmed and Josh Rojas in tagging Archer for a double. Meanwhile, it was Brandon Marsh who started off Arizona’s scoring in the game. The new rookie center fielder hit his first career home run in the fifth inning. Marsh worked his way to a 3-1 count. Then, sitting dead-red, he launched Archer’s pitch 397 feet into the right field bleachers.

In other game news, David Peralta committed his first fielding error of the season. This came in the bottom of the fourth inning when he attempted to make a play on a ball that was hit foul off the bat of Andrew Knapp. As Peralta charged hard towards the stands, he had the ball clank off his glove when he looked up to get his bearings. Bumgarner was there to pick up his teammate, getting Knapp to hit another one Peralta’s direction. Peralta put the two-handed snag on that after an adjustment of only a few steps from where he started.

How easy was MadBum’s outing? The game only took three hours in total, despite there being three errors to extend innings. The only scoring he allowed came on a long fly off the bat of Bryce Harper. Harper is going Harper. He’s going to get his from time-to-time and being in his book is not exactly anything to be ashamed of.

Final Score: AZ 4 - PHI 1

The player of the game was, of course, Madison Bumgarner, despite Harper tagging for both a double and a home run.

The win once again has the Diamondbacks within a day of catching the Dodgers, should things go the right way. The Diamondbacks continue their road trip tomorrow in Kansas City. The match-up would appear to favor Arizona as Robbie Ray will be taking the mound for Arizona. Kansas City will respond by sending former Arizona farmhand, Brad Keller to the mound.