The San Francisco Giants will host the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday night in the wild card round with the winner advancing to the NLDS to face the top-seeded Washington Nationals. Because they used top pitcher Gerrit Cole this weekend in an attempt to catch the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central, the Pirates will send Edinson Volquez to the mound. Meanwhile, the Giants will trot out ace hurler Madison Bumgarner.
2014 has been another strong year for Bumgarner, who has been one of the top pitchers in baseball since the Giants plugged him into their rotation in 2010. The 25 year-old left-hander has thrown at least 200 innings and made at least 31 starts in each of the last four seasons. Over that span he ranks 15th in fWAR and 13th in ERA. His strikeout rate is an impressive 23.8 percent and he’s maintained a low 5.9 percent walk rate.
This year those numbers have been even better, as Bumgarner has fanned 25.1 percent of hitters while walking a career-low 4.9 percent. His fastball velocity has ticked up to 92.1 percent, and he’s improved his first-pitch strike rate to 66.7 percent. In the second half of the season, he walked only 11 hitters, while striking out 91.
Against left-handed pitching, the Pirates numbers are a little less impressive. Their team slash line decreased to .270/.333/.388 which amounts to a 105 wRC+. However, four important right-handed hitters in Marte, Harrison, McCutchen and Martin, have the platoon advantage against Bumgarner, who has noticeably better numbers against same-handed batters.
Bumgarner presents a big challenge to this Pirates lineup. He might live in the shadow of his NL West counterpart, Clayton Kershaw, but he’s one of the top two or three left-handed pitchers in the National League. The Pirates offense is one of the toughest in baseball, but they will have their hands full against Bumgarner. If they can muster some support for Volquez, look for manager Clint Hurdle to hand the ball to the bullpen early.
