By Morris Phillips

What a month for Madison Bumgarner.

For that matter, what a season, what a 12-month run, and what a career-to-date.

The Giants’ ace stopped the red-hot Cubs dead in their tracks Thursday afternoon, striking out 12 in just six innings of work in a 9-1 win.  Bumgarner concluded August with a 5-0 record and a stingy 1.43 ERA.

Bumgarner’s teammates know a party when they see one.  On a picture perfect afternoon, in front of a sellout crowd, they backed their big lefthander with a couple of runs early, then Marlon Byrd’s three-run shot that put the Giants up comfortably, and Kelby Tomlinson’s grand slam that turned the game into a rout.  With Bumgarner mowing down the Cubs—fancy footwork included—this day at the ballpark played like some slickly produced video put forth by the local Chamber of Commerce.

“Things are just going our way right now, “Bumgarner said.  “I don’t look at the month, I look from start to start.”

“Bum was Bum today,” manager Bruce Bochy said.

Bumgarner joined Chicago’s Jake Arrieta, who won here on Monday, as the majors’ only 16-game winners. They are joined by Zach Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, Michael Wacha and Gerrit Cole in a Cy Young race that figures to be as intriguing as any in years.  But evaluations come later, this is the time to perform, and Bumgarner did that on Thursday from the start, striking out the side in each of the first two innings.

“He had a real good hook and the cutter, sporadically used his fastball,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon recalled.  “He got us to chase and he got us to chase down, but that’s because the pitch is such a quality pitch.”

Only Starlin Castro could claim he achieved something impactful against Bumgarner, doubling home a run in the second inning.  But that would be the last hit Bumgarner would allow.  From then on, it was usually strike one, fall behind in the count and fail to square anything up. The strikeouts ran Bumgarner’s pitch count up pretty quick, so with a four-run lead, Bochy elected to save his ace for another day.

The 98-pitch outing marked the third time this month Bumgarner registered double-digit strikeouts.  In August, the World Series MVP struck out 53 batters while walking just four—two of those on Thursday.  He threw a pair of complete games, hit a pair of home runs, and made a nifty play in the fourth inning Thursday with tremendous body control and his feet.

On that play, Brandon Belt fielded Catro’s grounder and threw behind Bum racing over the cover the bag.  But Belt’s throw was behind Bumgarner and he had to reach back, catch the ball, but get his foot on first base without being able to see it.  Impressively, he pulled off the whole sequence of steps flawlessly.

“I kinda laugh as he’s going through these games,” Matt Duffy said.

The Dodgers won 1-0 in Cincinnati to complete a sweep of the Reds just as the Giants were getting started.  That allowed the NL West leaders to maintain their 2 ½ game lead with a critical homestand starting Friday in Los Angeles where the Dodgers will see first the Cubs, then the Giants.

The Giants open a three-game set with the Cardinals on Friday.   Newly-acquired Mike Leake makes his home debut in the opener at 7:15pm.

NOTES: Tomlinson’s home run was the first of his career, and the first grand slam as a first home run by a Giant rookie since Brandon Crawford pulled the feat in 2012.  Tomlinson’s play has made it such that the Giants don’t have to Panik without Joe in the lineup.  Tomlinson has hit in 13 of his 14 starts since being called up to bolster the team’s infield, and the team has all but announced that Panik won’t be rushed back in the coming week, and probably won’t return until the first or second week of September.

Nori Aoki attempted to stretch a ball that glanced off Cubs’ left fielder Chris Denorfia’s glove into an inside-the-park home run in the seventh, only to see the Cubs cut down the leadoff man with a nifty, relay from the left field corner.

Matt Cain could land on the disabled list after his last, subpar outing.  The tentative plan is to have Chris Heston recalled to make a start on Sunday in Cain’s place.