Even Year Tragic? Giants lose MadBum, Shark to Injuries

With Baseball season on the horizon, you can almost smell the scent of freshly cut grass and the mouthwatering aroma of garlic fries in the air. But with less than a week remaining before the first pitch of the 2018 MLB season, San Francisco Giants fans were given a rude awakening with some not so fortunate news regarding not one, but two of their starting pitchers.

Making his final Spring Training appearance before San Francisco's season-opener in L.A. against the rival Dodgers, a game that will be televised on ESPN and was expected to feature Madison Bumgarner versus Clayton Kershaw while showcasing the most storied rivalry in all of baseball, the Giants ace will now be forced to watch from the dugout instead of taking the mound. Hosting the Kansas City Royals in Scottsdale, Arizona in the team's final Cactus League game of 2018, MadBum was struck on his pitching hand by a Whit Merrifield line-drive in the third inning of a 9-6 loss. Fearing the worst, Bumgarner would leave the game immediately following the incident to undergo x-rays that would reveal a fracture in his left throwing hand. The injury which is described as a broken pinkie finger will require surgery, derailing Bumgarner's plans of making his fifth consecutive Opening Day start and puts the team in a difficult position to start the season. One that both MadBum and the Giants know all too well as the team experienced life without their ace for three months in 2017 after a dirt-bike accident sustained during the club's April 20 day off in Denver left Bumgarner with bruised ribs and a sprained left shoulder.

Forced to fend for themselves without the best pitcher on their staff, the Giants went on to suffer their second worse season in San Francisco franchise history by losing a total of 98 games and finishing a whopping 40 games behind the archrival Dodgers. And now the Giants will once again have to survive the gauntlet of the National League West for at least the first two months without their ace, a division which features three playoff teams from a season ago -- the NL Champion Dodgers and both Wild Card winners -- Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. Making matters worse, Bumgarner's injury came just hours after the team learned that No. 3 starter Jeff Samardzija could miss up to a month with a sprained right pectoral muscle. Like they say, when it rains it pours. The injuries put a damper on what was otherwise a successful Spring Training considering no major injuries were reported prior to the last few days. And then just like that, the Giants are dealt a blow that will strip them of two starting pitchers. And Samardzija ain't no slouch either. Sure he hasn't produced the numbers he wishes he'd have in his first two seasons in a Giants uniform, but he proved to be a workhorse in 2017, leading the National League in innings pitched with 207 2/3 innings as well as walks per nine innings with 1.4.

While Bumgarner has dazzled this year during Spring Training play to the tune of a 2.84 ERA in five starts, logging 27 strikeouts in 19 innings, the exact opposite could be said for Samardzija's Spring. The 33-yeard old righty was underwhelming during his Spring Training campaign and his 10.64 ERA in four Cactus League starts (11 innings) was an automatic red-flag, which resulted in the team's concern. The injuries sustained by Bumgarner and Samardzija opens up a pair of vacancies in the Giants starting rotation. Though losing a pair of starters a week before the start of the season makes things more difficult in one aspect for Giants skipper Bruce Bochy, it makes things easier in another. Given the task of having to choose between Chris Stratton, Ty Blach and Derek Holland for the last two spots in the Giants pitching rotation, all of whom were competing for a spot in the rotation, all three will likely be called upon now with Bumgarner and Samardzija missing an extended period of time. As if San Francisco needed even more pressure to bounce back from their putrid 2017 campaign and hang with the rest of the big boys in the division, they'll be given the daunting task of having to stay afloat for at least the first months without two key starters which could very well spell a slow start to the season. Something they can ill-afford if they wanna regain their "even year magic."


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