Fatigue sends Bumgarner for medical evaluation
“Bum was talking about fatigue postgame last night,” D-backs supervisor Torey Lovullo mentioned Sunday morning. “Information was kind of coming in slowly and we just thought it’d be the best thing for him to get back to Phoenix where our doctors can get a look at him. On the urgency scale, I don’t think it’s very high, but it’s all precautionary at this point.”
Bumgarner hit a batter and walked a batter whereas additionally giving up a grand slam to the Dodgers’ Trayce Thompson.
After the second inning, Bumgarner was proven on the D-backs tv broadcast talking with one of many staff’s athletic trainers, and Lovullo mentioned after the sport that the staff had observed that his pitches didn’t have the identical life.
“There was nothing major from his standpoint,” Lovullo mentioned Saturday night time. “It was more just us asking questions and trying to find out if everything is OK. There was looseness to the breaking ball, and things just weren’t consistent. He’s always around the zone, but there were some big misses today. Red flags go up when we see that, our eyes tell us a story, but Bum was OK.”
Bumgarner’s velocity was down along with his four-seam fastball, averaging 89.1 mph Saturday night time versus the 91.2 mph it averaged final yr.
Initially, Lovullo chalked that as much as a veteran pitcher working into the common season and likewise at the moment Lovullo solely had the stadium radar gun to go off of and he doesn’t belief these, preferring to investigate the Statcast information the staff collects.
“I just want to get the data and get the information and obviously talk to the athlete,” Lovullo mentioned. “He felt like there was some fatigue and he couldn’t explain it so we just thought at that point in time it would be best for him to go out and get examined.”
The D-backs haven’t positioned Bumgarner on the injured checklist at this level.
“I had a brief conversation with him about it and he feels very strongly that he’s not going to miss the start,” Lovullo mentioned. “But we just want to be 100% sure in this situation.”
The D-backs do have beginning pitching depth if Bumgarner does ultimately wind up having to overlook time.
After an intense competitors for the No. 5 spot within the rotation that got here all the way down to Ryne Nelson and Drey Jameson, Nelson was put within the rotation and Jameson opened the yr within the bullpen. Jameson pitched 4 innings in aid Friday night time and he may very well be a candidate to step into the rotation.
Tommy Henry and Brandon Pfaadt have been additionally a part of the fifth-starter battle earlier than being optioned to Triple-A Reno. Henry made 9 begins for the D-backs final yr whereas Pfaadt led the Minor Leagues in strikeouts and arguably was essentially the most spectacular of the starters this spring.
Regardless of what occurs with Bumgarner, the D-backs are going to want extra innings from their starters.
Zac Gallen pitched into the fifth inning on Opening Day, however Merrill Kelly didn’t get out of the fourth Friday night time and Bumgarner made it by means of 4 Saturday.
“Unfortunately, our starters haven’t dug too deep into games,” Lovullo mentioned. “That’s always a remedy for an overworked bullpen. So we’ve got to be better, our starters have to be better.”
