SAN FRANCISCO - Madison Bumgarner's return was supposed to nudge the Giants back above .500. Instead, it snapped a five-game winning streak, but the big lefty wasn't to blame.
The Giants had no answers for the other lefty starter, Patrick Corbin, wasting six strong innings from Bumgarner in his season debut. The 3-2 loss was the first since last Tuesday, and dropped the Giants back to 2 1/2 games out of first in the tight NL West race.
The Giants had their chances. They loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth, but Bumgarner, Gorkys Hernandez and Buster Posey struck out. They loaded the bases again in the seventh but Posey flied out. They put two on in the eighth, but Pablo Sandoval grounded out. The tying run got to second in the bottom of the ninth, but Evan Longoria grounded out.
Here are the rest of the details...
-- Bumgarner threw 82 pitches before giving way to the bullpen. He gave up two earned, allowing eight hits, walking none, and striking out three. Both runs came in the second, when Ketel Marte and Chris Owings led off with back-to-back doubles.
-- The fifth inning appeared to be when Bumgarner found his groove. He struck out Corbin on a cutter and threw a fastball up and in to David Peralta that had the outfielder down on his knees. He also waved both arms when he didn't get an outside strike. Bumgarner caught a break when Paul Goldschmidt's double skipped into the seats, keeping a runner at third, and he took advantage of it. The next pitch was an inning-ending groundout to short.
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-- There was a new wrinkle on this night. Bumgarner threw a bunch of changeups, adding to an arsenal that is heavy on three pitches most nights. The tracking systems couldn't agree on how many he threw, but MLB had him at 14 and Baseball Savant said 16. He hadn't thrown 14 changeups in a game since June 27, 2014. He threw three total in his final three starts last season.
-- Mark Melancon looks like the guy the Giants thought they were getting. In two appearances since coming off the DL, he has five strikeouts. All have come on a big looping curveball.
-- The Giants drew 36,925 for Bumgarner's season debut. A good crowd, a loud crowd…but it has become very difficult for them to sell out AT&T Park like they used to.
