Bochy: Mad Bumgarner reached 'boiling point'
ARLINGTON -- Madison Bumgarner had plenty to be steamed about Friday night, and that had nothing to do with the 95-degree temperatures enveloping Globe Life Park.
Bumgarner was miffed that the Texas Rangers managed to score all their runs in the first two innings of a 6-3 Interleague victory over the Giants. In a couple of instances, Bumgarner threw the pitch he wanted, but it still got hammered.
Then came the fourth inning. Texas' Rougned Odor slid furiously and late into Giants second baseman Joe Panik at the bag in an attempt to break up a double play. Odor's effort, which might have been interpreted as unnecessarily aggressive, certainly caught Bumgarner's attention. Asked if he considered Odor's slide hard, Bumgarner replied, "It sure was."
Bumgarner's discontent truly escalated after Delino DeShields popped up to end the fourth. Frustrated, DeShields tossed his bat in the air. Incensed at what he considered to be an impudent gesture by DeShields, Bumgarner bellowed at him, and both benches emptied. Words were exchanged, most notably between Bumgarner and Texas' Adrian Beltre, but Bumgarner, last year's postseason hero, had made his imprint on the game, as he so often does.
"I think he was a little grumpy anyway, the way the game was going," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Bumgarner. "I guess the flip of the bat, that was his boiling point."
Said DeShields, "I don't get into those kind of altercations. I didn't really get it. If he was trippin' at me, whatever."
Earlier this season, Bumgarner took offense when the Dodgers' Alex Guerrero and then-Brewer Carlos Gomez used their bats as props to perform similar histrionics. "If you don't respect me, at least respect the game" is Bumgarner's unspoken attitude.
As for his spoken remarks, when asked about the events of the fourth inning, Bumgarner said, "I think it's pretty self-explanatory, don't you?"
Bumgarner couldn't fully explain the extremes of his performance. The Rangers ravaged him for six runs and six hits in the first two innings, including home runs by Beltre and Elvis Andrus. Then Bumgarner surrendered three hits in five shutout innings, resembling the 21-year-old who pitched eight shutout innings in Game 4 of the 2010 World Series on the same mound to set up San Francisco's Fall Classic triumph the next night.
Video: SF@TEX: Beltre's two-run shot gives Rangers the lead
Bumgarner was nonplussed, for instance, by Beltre's long ball on a high 0-2 fastball.
"I don't think I could have went up there and set it in a better spot," Bumgarner said. "He got on top of it. You don't see too many right-handed hitters put that kind of swing on that pitch."