Alex Young to pitch in place of injured Madison Bumgarner for D-backs

The Arizona Diamondbacks will start left-handed pitcher Alex Young on Saturday against the San Diego Padres in place of the injured Madison Bumgarner.

Young’s start Saturday will be his first of the 2020 season and 16th in his career. The 26-year-old was a rookie last year with the Diamondbacks and was almost exclusively a starter, appearing 17 times and making 15 starts. He had a 3.56 ERA in all appearances last year.

This season, Young has appeared seven times, all out of the bullpen. He was made a reliever to start the year with Bumgarner, Robbie Ray, Zac Gallen, Luke Weaver and Merrill Kelly in the rotation. Given the time he spent as a starter last year, he was a logical solution to the Bumgarner void.

However, because Young has been coming out of the bullpen, he won’t be pitching on full rest. He pitched on Tuesday against the Rockies, throwing 21 pitches in 0.2 innings of work. He allowed two hits and two earned runs.

Lovullo said he isn’t worried about Young pitching on only three days of rest. He said he hoped that Young could get up close to around 85 pitches.

“We feel like the pitch count shouldn’t be a huge issue,” he said.

The Diamondbacks placed the left-handed Bumgarner on the injured list on Monday with a mid-back strain, a day after he was removed after two innings in San Diego and had given up six earned runs on four home runs on 47 pitches.

“[Bumgarner] threw a 38-pitch bullpen [on Thursday],” Lovullo said. “And I haven’t connected with him yet, I plan on doing that, just to see how he’s doing, but from what I was told, everything went really well.”

Robbie Ray will pitch on Sunday.

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