It was another picture perfect evening by McCovey Cove as Madison Bumgarner was looking to redeem himself from his horrendous outing against the Twins. Bumgarner did just that and then some, racking up a new career high in strikeouts, leading the Giants to a 3-1 win over the Cleveland Indians at AT&T Park.
Bumgarner (W 4-9) struck out 11 in his seven innings of work this evening, allowing only six hits and one earn run, which came off a terrible call on a ball hit down the third base line. 78 of his 112 pitches were strikes, and looked confident and in command until his very last pitch of the evening.
Catcher Chris Stewart is making a strong push to become the Giants number one catcher, notching his first two RBI’s as a Giant in the second with a double. Stewart also threw out Grady Sizemore trying to steal third. Aubrey Huff added another run with an RBI single in the third, while Pablo Sandoval finished 2-3, but left the game early with left quadricep tightness. He status is still unknown.
Fausto Carmona (L 4-10) was apparently pitching for a spot in the rotation, and lasted six innings while allowing three earned. He gave up seven hits over that span, including three walks and four punchouts.
Jeremy Affeldt notched his second save of the year with his two innings of work, striking out five of the six outs he got in his perfect outing.
With the win the Giants move back into first place in the NL West, now ten games over .500 at 44-34 on the year. Full box score can be found here.
The Giants will have an off day Monday, then head to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley field. Tuesday will be a double-header with Ryan Vogelsong taking on Doug Davis in the frist game, and Barry Zito making his return to take on Rodrigo Lopez in the night game. Game times are at 11:20 a.m. and 5:05 p.m. with coverage on CSN Bay Area and KNBR 680 AM.