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Madison Bumgarner says he was joking over opener refusal

Madison Bumgarner was joking when he told manager Bruce Bochy he absolutely refuses to pitch behind an opener.

It won't happen anyway.

San Francisco's ace lefty is hardly a likely candidate to follow someone else to the mound who works the first inning.

"If you use an opener in my game, I'm walking right out of the ballpark," Bumgarner wrote in a text to Bochy after new team president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said in December the Giants were open to the idea.

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Bochy recalled the message this month during Fan Fest.