{"id":54868,"date":"2022-04-30T14:03:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-30T18:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=54868"},"modified":"2022-04-30T14:03:23","modified_gmt":"2022-04-30T18:03:23","slug":"madison-bumgarner-best-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/04\/30\/madison-bumgarner-best-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Madison Bumgarner Is Off to One of the Best Starts of His Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madison Bumgarner<\/strong> Off to One of the Best Starts of His Career<\/h2>\n

Friday night in St. Louis, Madison Bumgarner of the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> outdueled Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> in the 6\u20132 Diamondbacks victory. In five innings, Bumgarner allowed one run on five hits with two strikeouts and a walk. His only blemish was a solo home run by Paul Goldschmidt, who fouled off pitch after pitch before homering on the 12th pitch of the at-bat. The Diamondbacks, who have struggled to score runs consistently this season, finally gave Bumgarner enough run support for him to notch his first victory of the season. Hidden by this 1\u20131 record is the fact that Bumgarner is off to one of the best starts to a season in his entire career.<\/p>\n

Over his first five games, Bumgarner has been terrific, especially at keeping runs off the board. His ERA of 1.17 is tied for third in the National League, and his ERA-minus of 30 is in sole possession of third. Both numbers are the lowest Bumgarner has ever had in the first five starts of a season, dating back to 2010. His home run percentage (HR%) is 2.1%, the second lowest of his career behind 2011 (1.8%). In Game Score, which uses certain criteria to measure a pitcher\u2019s overall dominance in a game, Bumgarner\u2019s five-game average for 2022 is tied for the fifth best of his career. His Win Probability Added (WPA) is also fifth best of his 13-year career.<\/p>\n