Giants @ Rockies, 8/3

One more pitcher win and Madison Bumgarner can claim his highest win total since 2016. He’s already 3-0 against the Rockies in three starts this season (3.32 ERA, 26 K, 4 BB in 19 IP), but... we’ll see. That’s not a hint about tonight’s out. It’s a lot easier to read that as the Rockies being due rather than a guaranteed win.

Still, rather than focus on what feels like a terrible August that’s ready to unfurl — the last time the Giants finished a month with a winning record despite starting it 0-2 was 2015 — let’s instead focus on Madison Bumgarner, who turned 30 years old two days ago.

30 is a magical year. It’s a year when you’re no longer in your twenties, but you still have the 20-something mindset. The body is just on the verge of betraying you with slower metabolism and a greater need for sleep. My recollection of turning 30 was that the number of things I started to care about greatly diminished. It was a very freeing feeling in that way. So, if nothing else, Bumgarner is about to lose the rest of his “young energy”, and if he’s still serious about pitching for a long time, then he’ll be of the right mindset to explore how to settle in as a veteran major league pitcher who can do this for 6-7 more years.

I don’t love a Justin Verlander career comp because they’re such different pitchers, but this is around the point when his career looked like it was entering a crossroads. And then he figured something out and kept pitching. Here’s hoping, because at this point, win or lose, it probably just makes the most sense to try to keep Bumgarner for as long as possible.

Oh right, the game.

RF — Charlie Blackmon
SS — Trevor Story
3B — Nolan Arenado
1B — Daniel Murphy
LF — Ian Desmond
2B — Ryan McMahon
CF — Garrett Hampson
C — Tony Wolters
SP — Jon Gray

Trevor Story’s top home runs against is an interesting list: 5 against Andrew Suarez, 5 against Zack Greinke, and 3 against Madison Bumgarner. He hasn’t homered off of Madison Bumgarner yet this year.

1B — Brandon Belt
LF — Mike Yastrzemski
3B — Pablo Sandoval
C — Stephen Vogt
SS — Brandon Crawford
2B — Scooter Gennett
CF — Steven Duggar
RF — Austin Slater
SP — Madison Bumgarner

Buster Posey got hurt by a foul ball yesterday, so, figure we’ll see him (and, possibly, Evan Longoria) in tomorrow’s lineup.