Despite rough start to season, Diamondbacks to stick with Madison Bumgarner in rotation
MIAMI — Despite a trio of rough outings to open the year, the Diamondbacks are sticking with left-hander Madison Bumgarner in the rotation, manager Torey Lovullo said Saturday.
Bumgarner gave up five runs in five innings in Friday night’s 5-1 loss to the Miami Marlins. All of the damage came during a five-run fourth inning.
“I think if you add everything up yesterday, there were four scoreless innings,” Lovullo said. “I felt like he threw the ball well enough. I know I was asked a question, is he going to get another start? He will. It’s really business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”
Bumgarner dropped hints after the game that he was pitching through some sort of injury. After saying he felt arm fatigue during his first start of the season, the Diamondbacks sent him back to Arizona to be evaluated by doctors. Tests came back clean.
Bumgarner had been scheduled to pitch Wednesday against the Brewers before getting moved back two days to face the Marlins. He told reporters on Friday night that he was dealing with more than a typical situation of a starter needing extra time to recover.
“There was a lot going on in between the last start and this one,” Bumgarner said. “It wasn’t quite as smooth as it may have looked just getting a couple of extra days.”
Lovullo seemed to contradict those remarks when asked about Bumgarner’s health on Saturday.
“Nothing more than what I feel like are the common aches and pains,” Lovullo said. “I probably made a mistake in running him up over 100 pitches (in his second start). He maybe could have used a little bit more rest. He wasn’t able to probably have the normal bullpen, the normal session.
“I don’t think it was a perfect setting for him between the last start of (103) pitches and getting on the mound here in Miami. If it was a mistake, it was probably on me. Medically there was nothing that we felt like was going to hinder him. He probably could have used a little bit more rest.”
Bumgarner added on Friday night that things were “moving in the right direction” when it came to how he was feeling.
Through three starts, he has a 7.90 ERA. He has allowed 18 hits and 11 walks with one hit batter in 13 2/3 innings.
His next start, which will come on Wednesday in St. Louis, will not be an easy matchup for him. The Cardinals are hitting .309 with an .825 OPS against left-handed pitching. A year ago, they led the majors with an .809 OPS against lefties, with sluggers Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado doing significant damage. Both are hitting lefties well again so far this season.
Lovullo said he was encouraged by what he saw from Bumgarner’s willingness to mix pitches on Friday.
“I think he was shuffling the deck a little bit,” Lovullo said. “I think at times he becomes a little one-dimensional glove-side and I think he did a pretty good job making pitches in different areas and different quadrants of the zone.”
Mantiply turns in clean outing on rehab assignment
MIAMI — Left-hander Joe Mantiply, the Diamondbacks’ top reliever last season, fired a scoreless inning in a rehab outing for Double-A Amarillo on Wednesday.
Mantiply is scheduled to pitch one more time for Amarillo on Saturday, manager Torey Lovullo said, at which point the club will determine his next step.
“We’ll see where he is at that point,” Lovullo said, “but he is trending towards a healthy return here.”
Mantiply, the club’s lone All-Star last season, posted a 2.85 ERA in 60 innings last season. He struck out 61 and walked just six.
“He’s our All-Star, our guy who had an unbelievable year last year,” Lovullo said. “You add him to a bullpen with two really good lefties, he’s not just a left-handed specialist. He’s a guy who can get righties out as well. He’s a quality bullpen piece that we miss. We’ll get him back and it’ll make us that much better.”
The Diamondbacks decided near the end of spring training that they did not want to carry three left-handers in the bullpen, but Kyle Nelson apparently has pitched well enough that those plans have changed.
Nelson was optioned late in camp but was recalled when Mantiply went on the injured list. He has given up just one run in 5 2/3 innings, with one walk and nine strikeouts.
Andrew Chafin is the Diamondbacks’ other left-handed reliever.
Prospect Blaze Alexander to miss at least six weeks with broken thumb
MIAMI — Diamondbacks shortstop prospect Blaze Alexander has a broken right thumb and is expected to miss at least six weeks, farm director Josh Barfield said Friday.
Alexander suffered the injury on Thursday night when he was hit by a pitch during a game with Triple-A Reno.As of now, Barfield said, Alexander is not expected to require surgery.
Alexander, 23, was off to a terrific start for Reno, going 11 for 24 (.458) with three doubles, a triple and a homer. Perhaps just as encouraging, he had drawn eight walks compared to six strikeouts.
Alexander was added to the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster after last season. He hit a combined .301/.389/.540 between Double-A and Triple-A last year.
Short hops
—Lovullo said rookie Corbin Carroll was the first to admit he made a mistake on the bases in the seventh inning on Friday night, running into an out at third base when he should have stayed put at second on a ground ball to shortstop. “Basically when he walked into the dugout, he knew what he did,” Lovullo said. “I think he’ll learn from that mistake.”
—Right-hander Zach Davies’ left oblique strain is “more than a (Grade) 1,” Lovullo said. Grade 1 is the least severe. “It is something that is going to require several weeks,” Lovullo said. Davies suffered the injury in a start last weekend at Chase Field.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Lovullo: Diamondbacks to stick with Madison Bumgarner in rotation
