The Los Angeles Dodgers are certainly no strangers to Madison Bumgarner, as Sunday’s game was his 35th (34th start) against the longtime rival of the San Francisco Giants. Beyond challenges Bumgarner has presented with his pitching, there have also been personality clashes.
They centered around Bumgarner seemingly having a disdain for Yasiel Puig and the flare he played with. The two got into several confrontations, including a benches-clearing incident at Dodger Stadium in September 2016.
On Sunday, it was Max Muncy who drew the ire of the fiery pitcher. Muncy hit a 426-foot solo home run into McCovey Cove in the first inning, and gave the flight of the ball a quick gaze and dropped his bat like any he’s done with any other homer.
That angered Bumgarner, who shouted in Muncy’s direction and gestured for him to run the bases. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts interpreted that as Bumgarner attempting to light a spark under the struggling Giants, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“I think it’s going to be a short chapter. In seeing Madison over the years, this is a guy that’s top of the echelon as far as compete. You’ve got a rubber match, a day game, that team is kind of scuffling a little bit, so you can see there was a little preemptive kind of motivation. He understands and respects how Max plays then game; didn’t showboat, didn’t pimp it. I think it was a little bit of trying to fire the troops up. We’ve got nothing but respect for him.”
Muncy yelled back at Bumgarner, telling him to go retrieve the ball from the bay if he had issue with the seemingly innocent celebration. Muncy added he didn’t anticipate — nor hope for — the animosity to linger.
There weren’t any issues in his next two at-bats against Bumgarner, who held the Dodgers to just the one run over seven innings. The outing was his longest since also going seven frames against the Colorado Rockies on April 13.
Bumgarner nonetheless took the loss and fell to 3-6 with a 3.83 ERA in 14 starts this season. There’s been growing speculation Bumgarner may be among the players traded by Giants ahead of the July 31 deadline.
