Stephen Ellison

Bumgarner Deals, Giants Take Series From Cubs

SAN FRANCISCO — Joe Maddon has complained recently about the sloppiness of his team of reigning champions. The Giants were all too happy to take advantage.

With one out in the eighth, Ian Happ couldn’t scoop Denard Span’s grounder to second. A bloop from Ryder Jones and a seeing-eye shot from Jarrett Parker brought Span home, and the run held up. The Giants won 3-1, taking two of three from the Cubs. Here are five more things to know …

—- You know, there is a path back to being a winning team, and it’s what we saw the past two days. Ty Blach went seven solid innings Tuesday and Madison Bumgarner allowed just one run over his seven innings Wednesday. If Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija and Matt Moore can find better form next year, that’s still a really strong rotation.

—- Bumgarner let out a word we can’t print after swinging over the top of three Kyle Hendricks changeups with two on in the fourth. He’s rusty at the plate. Kelby Tomlinson pinch-hit for Bumgarner to lead off the eighth even though the lefty was at just 92 pitches.

—- Sandoval has been a little rough defensively in his first week back, but he added to the highlight reel in the fifth. He went down for a Ben Zobrist grounder and threw to first from his knees, beating Zobrist by a step.

—- The Giants can’t do anything about the Arenados and Goldschmidts and Hectors of the world, but they’ve mostly kept Kris Bryant in check this season. Bryant was 1-for-4, flying out with the tying run on first in the eighth. He went 7-for-25 against the Giants this season with one homer and one RBI.

—- Buster Posey did not steal a base, but his good friend Hunter Pence hit an impressive homer to right.

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