Thursday night’s Mets-Giants game in San Francisco was expected to be a pitcher’s duel, featuring two pitchers — Madison Bumgarner and Jacob deGrom — that entered the game top-five in the majors in ERA (Bumgarner second at 2.11, deGrom fifth at 2.30). Through three innings in the game, it appeared we were indeed getting a pitcher’s duel, as the game was scoreless.
And then the fourth inning came around, to remind us baseball is weird. Madison Bumgarner allowed a grand slam to the Mets’ Justin Ruggiano in the top half of the fourth, and in the bottom half, deGrom allowed five runs himself… with two of those runs coming on this Bumgarner dinger:
Madison Bumgarner will take care of it: https://t.co/zuAD4lz7jP #PitchersWhoRake pic.twitter.com/Z27QvoDoqB
— MLB (@MLB) August 19, 2016
That’s Bumgarner’s third home of the season, matching the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard for most homers this year by a pitcher (Syndergaard’s third homer was a moonshot two nights ago). It’s the 14th career homer of his career. Again, we’re talking about a PITCHER.
Madison Bumgarner: 14th career HR, most among active pitchers — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 19, 2016
And this homer wasn’t his first one off a star pitcher:
In last three seasons, Bumgarner has homered off All-Stars deGrom, Greinke and Kershaw (twice). Pretty strong list.
— Alex Pavlovic (@AlexPavlovic) August 19, 2016
Pitcher’s Home Run Derby at next year’s All-Star Game, please.