Madison Bumgarner Tries to Right Ship Against Cardinals

The first place Diamondbacks (11-7), will go for the sweep in the three game series finale against the Cardinals (7-11) today at 10:15 A.M. MST. The D-backs won the previous two games of the series 6-3 and 8-7.

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The Cardinals are going with two switch hitters and seven right hand bats against the left-hander Madison Bumgarner. red hot Willson Contreras, (two homers last night) is at DH for this game. The D-backs counter with three switch hitters and four left hand bats against the right-hander Jake Woodford.

Pitching Matchup

Bumgarner will make his fourth start of a season. In 13.2 innings he has a 7.90 ERA and 7.63 FIP. He's walked 11 batters and struck out just eight and given up 18 hits, including three home runs. In his most recent start against the Marlins he pitched three scoreless innings, but then gave up five runs in the fourth inning of a 5-1 loss.

The team has insisted that they are not close to pulling Bumgarner from the rotation, and it's not hard to see why. With Zach Davies expected to be on the injured list at least another month with an oblique strain, and two rookies already holding two spots in the rotation the D-backs need Bumgarner to figure out how to at least eat some innings. And as always the elephant in the room is his contract. He's owed approximately $21 million more for 2023 and another $14 million for 2024.

For Bumgarner to have any chance at effectiveness he needs to have pin point command on the edges of the strike zone. Unfortunately that's proved elusive for the former world series hero. He's been unable to locate in the shadow zones, either missing badly outside the zone or making middle-middle mistakes that get hammered when he comes back in. He's been unable to develop an effective a changeup throughout his career, and his arsenal of of Fastballs, Cutters and Curveballs has degraded to the point where he's become one of the least effective pitchers in MLB.

Despite team officials denials and protestations, it seems likely that Bumgarner will not have too many more chances to figure it out. The Diamondbacks are 11-7, and hold a two game lead over the Dodgers for first place in the NL West. While there are other issues for the team to address, not the least of the which is the bullpen once again, they are competitive and are not in a position to throw away games. Bumgarner will need to figure things out quickly and start locating his pitches or the Diamondbacks will be forced to make a move sooner rather than later.

Woodford is making his fourth start of the year. He has an 0-2 record with a 5.65 ERA, but threw 5.1 scoreless innings against the Pirates in his most recent start on April 14th. Pitching on just three days rest, Woodford was used primarily as a reliever the last couple of years, but has been pressed into starting duty due to injuries and depth issues in the Cardinals rotation.

Woodford throws both a sinker and four seam fastball, usually in the low 90's and features a "sweeper", which is supposed to be a type slider with more lateral movement. However in Woodford's case he gets more vertical movement than most, with 4.4 inches above average drop. It might be his most effective pitch.

The Diamondbacks bullpen has been struggling, and in last night's game gave up five runs in 5.1 innings. The main issue has been a staggering amount of home runs. Their 2.12 HR/9 and nearly 26% home run per fly ball rate by lead MLB as the most homer prone bullpen in the league. Andrew Chafin and Miguel Castro were pressed into duty last night and are most likely unavailable for this game. Look for Peter Solomon to be the long man out of the pen if Bumgarner is unable to get into the 6th inning.