If Madison Bumgarner and his wife ever have a child, maybe they will name the kid “Citi.”
Hey, Chipper Jones named one of his sons “Shea,” and even the former Braves slugger wasn’t quite as dominant on the road against the Mets as the Giants left-hander.
After tossing six shutout innings to cool off the red-hot Mets in a 6-1 victory on Sunday, the 2014 World Series MVP and three-time All-Star has allowed just two earned runs in 29 innings pitched at the Queens stadium. He is now 4-0 lifetime at Citi Field, with a 0.62 ERA — the lowest of any pitcher in baseball — and has an 18-inning scoreless streak dating to 2013.
“I hadn’t really thought about it,” Bumgarner said after allowing six hits, striking out seven and walking three to earn his third win of the year and lower his ERA to 3.03. “I don’t know if there is [something specific] or not. I mean, it’s a fun place to pitch. You’re in New York, pitching against a good team.”
In his four starts at Citi Field, his worst was a seven-inning, four-hit, one-run outing. That’s dominance.
This performance couldn’t have come at a better time for the Giants, who lost the first two games of the series after starters Jake Peavy and Matt Cain gave up a combined 12 earned runs over eight innings. Bumgarner wasn’t at his sharpest — he recorded only one 1-2-3 frame — but he stranded nine Mets runners. The 6-foot-5 lefty with the funky delivery that makes him so tough on left-handed hitters twice got Neil Walker with two runners on, and he froze pinch-hitter Asdrubal Cabrera with an 0-2 fastball to end the sixth with the bases loaded.
“He doesn’t make mistakes with men in scoring position,” Walker said. “You’re going to have to beat him with his best pitches.”
The Mets aren’t alone in their struggles against Bumgarner, who has pitched to under a 3.00 ERA the last three seasons, while winning 18 games each of the last two years. But they do struggle mightily against him, particularly in Queens. Sunday was just the latest example.
“He does what he always does, keeps hitters off balance, works in and out, throws from that funky slot that you’re not really accustomed to,” said captain David Wright, one of the Mets to have success on Sunday against Bumgarner, singling and walking in three trips to the plate. “He did a nice job changing speeds, keeping us off balance and not allowing us to hit a lot of balls hard.”
He always does at Citi Field.