By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Monday, April 6, 2015

PHOENIX, Arizona – Madison Bumgarner won’t come right out and admit it, but on Monday, he seemed to pick up right where he left off after nailing down Game 7 of the 2014 World Series.

“I’m just trying to get better, always,” Bumgarner said. “I’m not worried about what happened six months ago or three months ago or what happened last week. I prepared for today, now I’ll prepare for my next start. That’s how I like to go about my business.”

It’s an approach that served San Francisco’s ace left-hander well on Opening Day. He threw seven strong innings in the Giants’ 5-4 Opening Day win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Bumgarner (1-0) scattered six hits, gave up one earned run, struck out three and walked one. He threw 93 pitches.

“Mostly, it was getting ahead of guys, making pitches, the defense was great behind me and picked me up multiple times,” Bumgarner said, adding that he feels “no pressure” in being the ace of the staff. “It’s just about competing, and that’s it. You go out there and compete as hard as you can, and be pleased with whatever the result is.”

Bruce Bochy, Giants manager, said of Bumgarner, “I’m not sure what’s left to say about him. You look at what he did for us in the (2014) postseason, won 18 games last year. This guy is special. He throws a terrific game in his first start. He gave us what we needed against a tough lineup.”

The top third of the Giants’ order – Nori Aoki, Joe Panik and Angel Pagan – went 8-for-14 collectively and accounted for four of the five San Francisco runs.

“Those guys really did a nice job of getting on base and put together a really nice game,” Bochy said. “They put a lot of pressure on the pitcher, kept grinding out AB’s to get good pitches to hit.”

“They swung the bat great,” Bumgarner said. “It was a good, all-around team effort by everybody. We played the kind of baseball we need to play to win games.”

The Giants rocked Arizona starter and losing pitcher Josh Collmenter (0-1) for all five of their runs – all earned – on 10 hits. Collmenter struck out four and walked on in 4 2/3 innings.

“Collmenter has always been tough on us,” Bochy said. “This was our best game against him.”

The Giants scored the first run of the game off Collmenter in the third inning. With one out, Aoki singled and advanced to third on Panik’s double, but was caught in a rundown at the plate after making a wide turn at third. Panik, who advanced to third on the rundown, scored on a base hit by Pagan.

Arizona tied the game in the bottom of the third when Ender Inciarte singled and scored on Mark Trumbo’s two-out triple off the overhang in right-center field.

San Francisco surged ahead 5-1 with four runs in the fifth. After Aoki and Panik led off with back-to-back singles, Pagan drove in Aoki with a double, and Buster Posey’s sacrifice fly to left scored Panik. Belt grounded out, and a walk to Casey McGehee chased Collmenter.

Brandon Crawford greeted Arizona reliever Andrew Chafin with a two-RBI double that was mishandled in right by Trumbo. Pagan and McGehee scored on the play.

The Diamondbacks roughed up the San Francisco bullpen in the bottom of the eighth, scoring three runs on a bases-loaded, three-RBI pinch-hit double by Jake Lamb. Inciarte led off with a single off Javier Lopez and moved to second on a wild pitch by Jean Machi, who then completed a walk to Paul Goldschmidt. Two batters later, Aaron Hill singled to load the bases, and Sergio Romo replaced Machi.

Lamb greeted Romo with a drive high off the wall in right-center that cleared the bases and pulled the Diamondbacks to within 5-4. Romo struck out Tuffy Gosewisch, but walked pinch-hitter Cliff Pennington. Jeremy Affeldt replaced Romo and struck out pinch-hitter David Peralta to snuff out the rally.

Sergio Casilla tossed a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out Goldschmidt to nail down his first save of the season.

“A lot of good things happened today,” Bochy said. “We had some good at-bats, it’s good to get those runs and we had just enough. Give (Arizona) credit – they battled back.

“It was a good ballgame. A good start.”

GIANTS JOTTINGS: Video replay of whether or not a pitch from Affeldt hit pinch-hitter David Peralta took 1:54. The call on the field, a foul ball, was upheld. … Ryan Vogelsong will start Tuesday night’s game for San Francisco, facing Rubby De La Rosa of Arizona. The Giants are waiting to name a starter for Wednesday’s contest. … Snakes RHP Daniel Hudson made a positive step in his comeback bid. Hudson, returning to the mound after recovering from a second Tommy John surgery, faced five batters in a scoreless eighth inning. Hudson threw one inning against San Diego last September. … The announced sell-out crowd of 49,043 was the fourth largest Opening Day in Diamondbacks’ history, and the eighth-largest regular season crowd at Chase Field overall. … Even with the new rules for speeding up the pace of the game, Monday’s contest took 3:18 to play.