Madison Bumgarner has pitched on baseball’s biggest stages and has thrived, dominating opposing hitters in do-or-die playoff games and in the seventh game of the World Series. So when he spoke on Friday, describing in his North Carolina drawl the way he plans to approach his first game back in San Francisco against his former Giants team, he managed to make a hard-to-believe claim sound fairly believable.
He said he anticipated that Saturday night would be just another day at the office.
“I feel like I’m pretty good at pushing all that stuff aside,” Bumgarner said. “I think I’ll be able to go out there and treat it like any other start tomorrow, same as I would if it was a postseason start or whatever.