Torture is Over: Bumgarner shows why he is a champion

The motto for the 2010 San Francisco Giants certainly applied to Madison Bumgarner for the first part of the 2011 season, but the torture is over, as the San Francisco Giants starting pitcher showed championship form in getting his first win of the season.

Bumgarner's 3-1 win over the Dodgers on Thursday was his most dominating performance since his 4-0 win over the Texas Rangers in Game 4 of the World Series.

Bumgarner pitched 8 2/3 innings of shutout baseball until allowing an RBI double by Jerry Sands in the ninth inning. Tense moments ensued as Giants closer Brian Wilson came in for Bumgarner and proceeded to walk the bases loaded putting the tying runs in scoring position.

As Jason Carroll's line drive went dove quickly towards outfielder Nate Shierholtz, until Shierholtz made a spectacular diving catch to end the game.

The Giants put up two runs early on Dodgers starting pitcher Chad Billingsly on Mike Fontenot's RBI double to score Buster Posey and Freddy Sanche's sacrifice fly. Sanchez added an RBI single in the sixth inning, to score a suddenly hot-hitting Miguel Tejada.

Prior to the win, Bumgarner was mired with poor run support, going 0-6 despite a respectable 3.71 ERA.

Said Bumgarner on his winless start, I just tried to ignore that and go on. I feel good about throwing a good game and keeping us in there. Wins and losses are something you really can't control, so I tried not to focus on that.

This time, Bumgarner's good game got him the win.

The Giants swept the short two-game series against the Dodgers and will now go back home to start a three-game series against cross-town rival Oakland A's.