It appears that Madison Bumgarner has an anger management problem.
When Dodgers utility infielder / outfielder Alex Guerrero popped out to Giants right fielder Justin Maxwell in the bottom of the seventh inning of Tuesday night’s game, Guerrero was obviously upset with himself for missing a pitch that he felt he could have driven – obvious to everyone except Madison Bumgarner, that is.
As Guerrero was leaving the batters box he spun around, again, clearly out of frustration, and the short-fused Bumgarner took exception to this and missed a perfect opportunity to keep his mouth shut which, of course, would have been the professional (and classy) thing to do. But instead, Bumgarner went out of his was to approach Guerrero as he was trotting to first base and said something derogatory to the 28-year-old Cuban defector.
Although what was said cannot be heard on the video clip, even a novice lip-reader can see that it included an expletive. But rather than confront the immature Giants pitcher, Guerrero took the high road and simply returned to the Dodgers dugout and nothing else was made of the incident.
Dodger fans may recall that when fellow Cuban Yasiel Puig homered off of Bumgarner on May 9, 2014, the hot-headed Bumgarner attempted to provoke Puig as he rounded third base – apparently upset at Puig’s signature bat flip. Unlike Guerrero, however, Puig was more than ready to take the Giants pitcher to task until catcher Buster Posey interceded.
In spite of his 6′ 5″ / 235-pound build, sooner or later someone is going to knock Bumgarner on his… bum if he continues with his childish ways. And at this rate, it will probably be a Dodger who does it.
Bumgarner may have a bad attitude but there was nothing wrong with his pitching last night. Kershaw also had his best game this year IMO but was outpitched.
You again missed the point, Joe. This had/has nothing to do with pitching but with being a professional and being a decent human being. You can be intimidating without being a jerk. Randy Johnson was as intimidating as they come but he wasn’t a jerk like Bumgarner is.