Giants beat Padres: big games for Bumgarner, Crawford
Giants beat Padres: big games for Bumgarner, Crawford
Tuesday night’s Bumgarner-Myers exchange was relatively mild, but it gave Padres fans ammunition to boo the Giants’ ace, who was largely efficient in a 5-1 victory that extended the Giants’ win streak to six.
Bumgarner threw a five-hitter and struck out 11 batters without issuing a walk, his 27th double-digit strikeout game, and Brandon Crawford drove in all the runs with a three-run homer, sacrifice fly and RBI double.
Bumgarner ended the third inning by striking out Myers, who took a big cut and missed.
The pitcher played down the incident, denying he stared down Myers, a fellow North Carolinian, and said, I’ll tell you what happened.
The incident wasn’t a huge deal but the latest in a line of Bumgarner dustups, usually a result of the lefty not appreciating a batter’s behavior during or after an at-bat.
Crawford’s homer came on a 3-0 count from Colin Rea, who was hit hard by the Giants — there were several loud outs — and was pulled after five innings.
Buster Posey doubled to open the sixth, advanced to second on Pence’s single and scored on Crawford’s fly to deep right.
An economical Bumgarner had a six-pitch first inning and struck out the side in the second on 12 pitches.
Bumgarner escaped the jam by striking out Derek Norris and retiring Kemp on a popup that Belt caught running away from the plate in foul territory.