San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner has always been a dangerous hitter for a pitcher, but it’s about time we dropped that “for a pitcher” qualifier.
During his two-home run game against the Diamondbacks on Sunday, Bumgarner put on a power display that just one other player in baseball has accomplished. And that player, of course, would be baseball-crushing machine Giancarlo Stanton.
Ah, that sound. He destroyed that baseball.
Each of Bumgarner’s home runs had an exit velocity of at least 112 mph. According to Statcast, Stanton is the only other player to hit two home runs at 112 mph exit velocity in a game during the Statcast era. He now gets to share that designation with a pitcher.
Sure, it’s funny to make jokes that Bumgarner leads the league in home runs on the first day of the season, but dude just hit a pair of baseballs with the ferocity of the league’s best power hitter. The first one could have just been a good swing, a flash of luck. But he did it twice! His first home run came off Zack Greinke.
With that second home run, Bumgarner proved that it was no fluke.
Will Bumgarner hit double-figure home runs this season? Probably not. But from a pure power-hitting, baseball-mashing standpoint, he just proved that he is up there with the best in baseball.