“We all know Bum’s pretty intense out there. “That wasn’t Puig’s fault,” Kershaw said. “Every time I face him,” Puig said afterward, “it seems like we have the problems.”īy the end, they were surrounded by something like 80 people, all looking at each other.
“Don’t look at me,” Bumgarner snarled back. “Don’t look at me,” Bumgarner said, pointing to his own eye. It began on a roller from Puig’s bat up the first-base line, which brought Puig and Bumgarner to within a few feet of each other, which could end only one way. Not only did it push the Giants another game back, not only did they win a game started by Bumgarner, but they’d also rallied behind Puig, a man they not long ago were happy to have removed from their clubhouse, and on Monday night were flying from their dugout and bullpen to defend. The Dodgers did take great satisfaction from their victory. He has time for two more regular-season starts. He gave up a run on a scratch single, a stolen base, an error and a wild pitch. So Kershaw reached the center of the infield, pounded his glove twice with his fist, hiked up his pants, took a big breath and got on with the business of pitching against the Giants and Bumgarner and a herniated disk and the grogginess of eight innings since June 26. Maybe they don’t always look so hot in September, but they always look good in the parade. And here’s the thing about the Giants: Unless the sun comes up and there’s a stake through their hearts, the job’s not done. 22, Clayyyton Kerrrshaw …” the man behind the mic said, and that would do for a Dodgers team trying to finish off the Giants. But still the guy who’d set his jaw and get after a game like almost nobody else. But he was on the mound, in the flesh, at Dodger Stadium for the first time in three months, and he was fine. Two-plus weeks from a presumed postseason start, Kershaw, held up against, you know, Kershaw, that Kershaw, wasn’t quite that. Madison Bumgarner left the game after his skirmish with Yasiel Puig. It could fit inside, say, a spinal disk, assuming that disk was attached to a certain Clayton Kershaw, who most definitely is attached to whatever happens for – or to – the Los Angeles Dodgers from here.
A whole season balances on a breath of luck – good or bad. … It’s been the most trying season for me, far as that goes.” I think, I have to be honest, trying to get the closing thing together. “The bullpen decisions, trying to get this thing in order, and sometimes overthinking it a little bit because of our struggles there. “It’s been no question a difficult year,” Bochy said. The man finesses a bullpen like a traveling salesman works an expense account, and still the numbers come up a bit too imperfect. The Giants, for example, came to town, and as of dinnertime they had themselves a playoff spot, and the best manager in the business has been throwing darts at the late innings for a month. As Buck Showalter likes to say, “Half the people don’t care and the other half are glad you got ’em,” and Buck didn’t make that up but it sounds folksy when he says it, so he gets the credit. Somehow we’ve got to persevere and keep coming.”Įverybody’s got problems, man. The result was a two-run bottom of the ninth for the Dodgers, and a lot of shouting and celebrating on the field and in the bleachers, and an ashen Bochy observing, “We’ve let too many of these get away. Well, first he was dragged from the field by teammates and coaches, and then the bullpen door reopened, and then the reason the Giants find themselves playing desperately to hang onto a wild-card spot (along with an offense that has been anemic) happened again. He’d allowed one hit (a second-inning double by Puig, of course) and struck out 10 and held that one-run lead, and by then appeared as though he could have pitched until Thursday, especially given the alternative. Bumgarner was removed from the game after seven innings and 97 pitches, immediately after the dust-up with Puig, though the two are believed to be unrelated. As it turned out, in fact, neither Bumgarner nor Puig was anywhere near the ninth inning, when the Dodgers scored twice against the Giants when their relievers were forced to enter one at a time, a possible point of contention among China Basin denizens.
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