Madison Bumgarner’s arm checks out ‘fine’ after MRI, Torey Lovullo says
SAN DIEGO — Left-hander Madison Bumgarner is on track to make his next scheduled start after an MRI on his left arm showed no structural damage, manager Torey Lovullo said.
“Everything is fine,” Lovullo said. “Just a little bit of fatigue, as we explained. All pitchers go through it at certain points in time. Really, he works hard for the four days in between his starts. I just think we got to get him past that point.”
Lovullo said Bumgarner will throw his typical between-starts bullpen this week, and assuming that goes well, will start on Friday at Chase Field, where he will face the Dodgers for the second time this season.
Bumgarner’s velocity was down on Saturday at Dodger Stadium. He told the club he felt “arm fatigue,” Lovullo said, prompting the team to send him back to Arizona for tests.
Bumgarner, who gave up five runs in four innings, appears to be under pressure to perform this season. Not only do the Diamondbacks have aspirations to field a contending team this year, they have a slew of talented young pitchers pushing for rotation spots.
Tipping his hand?
Reliever Kevin Ginkel believes he might have been tipping his pitches against the Dodgers on Saturday, and he said he plans to make an adjustment with the way he holds the baseball in his glove before his delivery.
The Athletic’s Eno Sarris tweeted screengrabs of Ginkel just before delivering pitches to the Dodgers that showed his wrist bent before throwing a slider and straight before a fastball. Sarris said pitching coach Brent Strom made the same observation.
“It definitely makes it easier for them if they know what’s coming,” Ginkel said on Monday. “It’s a totally different outing if that doesn’t happen. I’ll make some adjustments today.”
Ginkel said it looked like the Dodgers’ Trayce Thompson was sitting on a fastball before blasting a 96-mph pitch into the left-field seats for his second of three homers that night.
Short hops
Left-hander Joe Mantiply has thrown two bullpens since opening the season on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, Lovullo said. He is eligible to return from the injured list on April 11.
*Right-hander Brandon Pfaadt, the club’s top pitching prospect, was hit hard in his first start for Triple-A Reno, giving up five runs in 3 2/3 innings. He served up four home runs, three of which were hit 103.5 mph or harder. In other ways, however, it was a typical Pfaadt start: He did not issue a walk and struck out seven.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: D-Backs say Madison Bumgarner’s arm checks out ‘fine’ after MRI
