Written by Mark Simons and Sarah Langs at ESPN.com
San Francisco Giants starter Madison Bumgarner showed himself to truly be a giant among home run hitters in Sunday’s season-opening loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Bumgarner became both the first pitcher to hit multiple home runs in an Opening Day game, per Elias Sports Bureau research, and the most prolific homer-hitting pitcher in franchise history in Sunday’s game. The two he hit on Sunday give him 16 for his career, easily the most among active pitchers.
He became the first pitcher to hit two home runs and strike out at least 10 in a game since Rick Wise of the 1971 Phillies (who also had 11 strikeouts against the Giants). Via Elias research, Bumgarner’s 11 strikeouts were the most by a Giants pitcher on Opening Day since the mound moved to its current distance from home plate in 1893. He also took a perfect-game bid through 5⅓ innings and would have gotten the win but for a rough outing from the Giants’ bullpen.
Bumgarner’s hitting was what wowed the most on Sunday. He’s the second pitcher in as many seasons with a multi-homer game, joining Noah Syndergaard. Bumgarner’s seven go-ahead home runs (including Sunday’s seventh-inning blast) match former Cardinals pitcher Bob Forsch for the most by a pitcher since the DH was implemented in 1973.
What makes Bumgarner such a potent home run hitter? Here’s a closer look at his 16 home runs.
The ins, outs, ups and downs
Bumgarner is dangerous because he can hit the inside pitch and reach the outside pitch. He has nine home runs against inner-half pitches and seven against outer-half pitches.
Not surprisingly, he likes the ball up so he can muscle it out of the park. He has 11 home runs and a .247 career batting average against pitches in the upper-half of the strike zone (or above the zone) and .133 with five home runs against pitches in the lower-half of the zone (or below the knees).
To put the .247 into context, that actually is only slightly below average for a position player (the average for a major leaguer is typically in the low .260s). Bumgarner’s upper-half batting average is four points higher than Mike Trout’s career mark. And his slugging percentage is .447 (of course, Trout’s on-base percentage and slugging percentage are both notably higher).
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