D-backs’ Lovullo: Madison Bumgarner getting feel for ‘secondary stuff’

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner threw a simulated game on Wednesday.

The outing is the lefty’s first since throwing two scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels last Thursday.

Bumgarner is known to build himself up slowly ahead of the MLB season and use spring training to work on the finer details of his craft.

“I did use the setting that we had today to try to do a lot of things that I’m not terribly comfortable with to try to get more comfortable with them,” Bumgarner told reporters via Zoom.

“It probably wasn’t as pretty as I would hope for, but like I said, I’m trying to do things that I wouldn’t usually do to see what’s there and get things going. I liked what I was able to do today.”

D-backs manager Torey Lovullo was able to get a glimpse of the lefty’s outing prior to the team’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I thought he was very good with his secondary stuff, but he was pitching off of his fastball. I liked what I saw,” Lovullo said via Zoom.

“I think there’s probably just a certain mixture of pitches that he was probably trying to get a feel and trying to get to,” he added. “I saw him late in his outing, he was throwing a lot of his secondary stuff. I think he was probably getting a real good feel for that.”

Bumgarner has never been one to divulge exactly what he’s working on, mostly to not “pick the low-hanging fruit” for opposing teams looking for any edge they can get on the four-time All-Star.

“Just trying to do things that I’m not the best at, trying to spend more time on those,” he said.

“Given the setting, the big game on the backfield — I would like to do that more in actual spring training games but sometimes it’s tougher because it’s a little bit more competitive in that environment.”

Follow @jwa1994