Ben Revere’s single Tuesday night off of San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner was nothing out of the ordinary as the Twins got their leadoff man on base. Neither was Alexi Casilla‘s double that followed.
But when Joe Mauer singled and Michael Cuddyer doubled to make it four straight hits, Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti came out to try and settle his pitcher down. It didn’t work.
Delmon Young singled, Danny Valencia followed with a double, Luke Hughes singled and Tsuyoshi Nishioka doubled to make it eight consecutive hits to start the game.
Bumgarner’s first recorded out came in the form of a strikeout against Twins pitcher Carl Pavano.
Revere, who delivered the first hit of the game, stepped back into the box and ripped a double to end Bumgarner’s day.
When it was all said and done, Bumgarner lasted just 1/3 of an inning. The starter gave up nine hits and allowed eight runs, all earned, with no walks and one strikeout.
In this historic outing, one that Bumgarner would like to erase, some new standards were set for exactly how not to pitch. There have been 10 pitchers to face 10 batters and only record one out in baseball history, according to ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark. Bumgarner, however, is the only pitcher who recorded the out against a team’s opposing pitcher.
It was just the seventh time a team led off a game with eight straight hits. Bugmarner was just the second to face all eight. Pittsburgh’s Zach Duke gave up eight straight to the Cubs in 2009.
However, Bumgarner’s dreadful performance was only one half of Tuesday’s game. Minnesota’s offense was just on fire.
They became the first team in the history of baseball to start a game by going single-double four consecutive times, according to ESPN.com. They were also the first team to plate all eight men who boarded since the 1990 New York Yankees.
