According to Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News, the Giants will call up Madison Bumgarner to start against the Red Sox on Saturday.
Bumgarner was scratched from his start for Triple-A Fresno on Friday night, but the Giants downplayed the whole situation at first, saying that he would only be used if Joe Martinez was needed in relief on Friday night. While Martinez did warm up, he never entered the game. Still, after Friday’s game, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said they “needed a fresh arm.” In other words, the Giants probably intended to go with Bumgarner all along.
The 20-year-old left-hander had a chance to make the team out of spring training, but gave up five runs over seven innings (6.43 ERA) while showing decreased velocity, eventually losing the fifth starter gig to Todd Wellemeyer. Bumgarner has turned it around since then, going 7-1 with a 3.16 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP over 14 starts with Triple-A Fresno, touching 90-93 mph on the radar gun in recent starts.
The 2007 first-round pick posted a 1.80 ERA in three relief appearances and one start as a September call-up last season. Despite concerns about his velocity, Baseball America ranked him as the No. 14 prospect in all of baseball over the winter.
