Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner, who came into this year as a career .138 hitter, smacked his fourth homer of the season last night against the Dodgers.
He’s now hitting .258 with four homers (including two grand slams) and a .755 OPS in 78 plate appearances this season, which is a higher OPS than, among others: Yoenis Cespedes, Bryce Harper, Chase Utley, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford, Josh Hamilton, Pablo Sandoval, Joe Mauer, Jose Reyes, Evan Longoria, Carlos Gonzalez, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, Dustin Pedroia.
Anyway, you get the idea.
Bumgarner is also tied for the most home runs by a pitcher since 2006, when Carlos Zambrano went deep six times. Here are all the pitchers with four or more homers in the past 10 seasons:
Madison Bumgarner 2014 4 Yovani Gallardo 2010 4 Carlos Zambrano 2009 4 Carlos Zambrano 2008 4 Micah Owings 2007 4 Carlos Zambrano 2006 6
Carlos Zambrano hit 24 home runs in 693 at-bats, including at least one homer every season from 2003 to 2012 and multiple homers in five of those years.
