Madison Bumgarner to return for D-backs Friday, admits to ‘overdoing it’

Madison Bumgarner admitted his desire to tinker may have initially put him on the injured list. His competitiveness to return quickly from left shoulder inflammation then led to a minor setback in his rehab after he was placed on the IL to start June.

But he’s been feeling good for two or three weeks now, and out of the MLB All-Star break, the Arizona Diamondbacks will have their veteran lefty on the mound Friday against the Chicago Cubs.

“It took a little bit longer to get rid of than initially thought,” Bumgarner told reporters Thursday. “Got a good handle on it.”

D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said the team will keep a close eye on Bumgarner.

“We’ll be careful. Obviously an injured athlete getting on the deck and getting after it, we want to be mindful of overall workload per inning, the up-downs. We have a thought or two about where we’re going to go with this. He’s stretched out enough to go out and win a baseball game, that’s for sure.”

Bumgarner got off to a rocky start this year, allowing at least five earned runs in each of his first three starts before going on a streak in which Arizona went 4-1. During that five-game span, the lefty allowed three combined runs over 30.0 innings.

Then Bumgarner found another valley, losing three straight before getting battered over 2.0 innings in his last start on June 2.

He holds a 5.73 ERA and 1.26 WHIP.

Bumgarner said tinkering on the side with throwing may have led to overwork.

He did not want to say he wasn’t responsible with his health, but he does believe that he needs to learn how to pull back on his workload, both when healthy and rehabbing from an injury.

“I think that’s really all it was, is maybe me overdoing it,” he said. “I had been throwing a lot, working on stuff. I started long-tossing more, messing with that program. I tinker and dabble and try to find some things here and there mechanically. I think maybe I got a little carried away and tried to do a little too much.

“We gave it some time off. We exhausted it with treatment, pretty much everything we could. I think I probably was a little bit aggressive coming off of it initially, coming back from the throwing, starting to throw again, ’cause it felt good for a few days. … I wanted to try and hurry and get back here. I probably did a little more than I should have from the throwing side of it. We were able to bounce from that pretty quick, though.”

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