San Francisco @ Washington preview
Nationals Park
Last Meeting ( Jul 10, 2010 ) San Francisco 10, Washington 5
Coming off the first win of his career, Madison Bumgarner is poised to become the next great young pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
Bumgarner will be looking to boost his win total to two when the Giants close out a three-game set against the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
The 10th overall pick in the 2007 draft, Bumgarner shot through the San Francisco system on the strength of a fastball that could reach the high-90s, improving secondary pitches and impeccable control.
He continued to dominate at Double-A Connecticut last season despite a diminishing fastball that got down into the 80s by the end of the season.
The Giants chalked it up to fatigue and gave their young left-handed prospect every opportunity to win the fifth starter’s job in spring training, but the mysterious drop in velocity continued.
Bumgarner went back to the minors and got knocked around for the better part of the first month before a slight mechanical change brought the velocity back into the 90s and the star prospect returned to form.
San Francisco recalled him on June 26 and Bumgarner put together two solid starts against Boston and Colorado, but he could not find the win column until Tuesday at Milwaukee. The 20-year-old allowed three hits and struck out five in eight scoreless innings to earn his first career victory.
If Bumgarner can tap into his strong potential through the rest of the season, he will add to an already dominating rotation that includes Matt Cain, Barry Zito and two-time reigning Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum. The Giants are counting on that rotation to overcome a relatively weak offense and lead the club to the playoffs.
That offense has received a bit of a youth infusion as well of late. Rookie catcher Buster Posey has settled nicely into the middle of the lineup and provided the spark the team has needed for some time. Posey keyed Saturday’s 10-5 victory with four hits and three RBIs, including his seventh homer.
Posey is batting .351 on the season and has four homers in his last four games and six multi-hit games in his last 10.
Strangely enough, for a team that ranks in the bottom half of the National League in nearly every offensive category, the Giants have won five of six while averaging over nine runs per game in the victories.
The Nationals will send crafty veteran Livan Hernandez to the mound today. The ageless right-hander has been solid all season for Washington, providing a solid veteran presence to an otherwise very young rotation. However, one of his worst starts of the season came against San Francisco back on May 25, when he allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings to suffer the loss.
That outing marked one of only two starts this season in which Hernandez failed to make it through six innings and one of only four times in which he allowed more than three earned runs.