Madison Bumgarner Threw Another Tantrum on the Mound
Madison Bumgarner is known to get aggravated on the mound over the smallest perceived slights and often winds up looking like an idiot. On Monday, that happened again and it was a classic Bumgarner meltdown over nothing.
Bumgarner's Arizona Diamondbacks were playing the Cincinnati Reds, and he surrendered a double to Joey Votto in the bottom of the first inning. That happened to be the 800th extra base hit of Votto's career. After being made aware of that fact, home plate umpire Dan Merzel requested the ball from Bumgarner so Votto could keep it. It was a pretty standard, nice gesture to a fellow professional, right? MadBum didn't see it that way.
Bumgarner flipped out over Merzel asking for the ball and threw a tantrum on the mound. When the umpire tossed him a new one, Bumgarner felt it in his hand for a minute before firing it into the ground and demanding another one. It was an embarrassing exchange.
Check this out:
The umpire asked for the baseball after Joey Votto recorded his 800th career extra-base hit.
— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) June 6, 2022
Madison Bumgarner wasn’t too happy when he was forced to give up the baseball, so he threw the brand new ball they gave him away and asked for a new one. pic.twitter.com/tQC9fvs4Xi
That's just ridiculous behavior and it made Bumgarner look like a clown. Votto is an incredibly well-liked and respected guy around MLB and Bumgarner essentially stole a nice moment from him by being a jerk.
But fear not, dear reader, karma came for the veteran lefty. He took the loss after allowing four runs on eight hits in five innings as the Reds won the rain-shortened contest 7-0.