SAN FRANCISCO—SF Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner was nearing the end of a perfect game against the San Diego Padres on Saturday, September 12 when Melvin Upton Jr. stepped up to the plate and hit a single straight up the middle.
The Padres would end up leaving a man on a base as Upton’s hit would prove their only hit of the game against Bumgarner through the nine innings.
Bumgarner had seet off 23 batters, walked none, and was two outs into the eighth inning before Upton struck. Following Upton’s hit, the San Francisco crowd recognized Bumgarner’s near feat and gave the pitcher a standing ovation.
The game would end 8-0 in a much-needed win for the Giants. For Bumgarner, this would be his second shutout of the season and third career one-hitter. He would also finish with nine total strikeouts, throwing 111 pitches. This marks Bumgarner’s 18th win this season.
The only Giants pitcher ever to throw a perfect game was teammate Matt Cain against the Houston Astros back in June 2012.
After the game, Giants manager Bruce Bochy praised Bumgarner’s level of play throughout the game and admitted he knew what Bumgarner could have potentially accomplished.
“I think we all felt it,” he said to the media. “Once you get in that fifth inning – the way he was throwing the ball. He was on tonight.”
Bumgarner himself was determined to shrug off the disappointment and look to the future. “I like to think I didn’t lose it,” he told Amy Gutierrez of NBC Sports. “It’d be awesome to get a chance to do something like that but we’re here to win games and you can’t lose sight of that.”
The San Francisco Giants are currently seven and a half games behind the NL West division leaders, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tomorrow, the team begins a series against the Cincinnati Reds.
