San Francisco Giants pitcher Jake Peavy hit a home run off Cincinnati Reds pitcher Collin Balester during the fourth inning of Wednesday’s game, becoming the fifth different Giants pitcher to homer this season, which ties an MLB record, per MLB Stat of the Day.
Peavy was an unlikely candidate to help San Fransisco match the record, as he only had two career home runs before Wednesday’s game, with both of those coming back in 2006 as a member of the San Diego Padres.
He does now have a .226 batting average for the season, but his career batting line of .168/.205/.226 is only somewhat above average for a pitcher.
Teammate Madison Bumgarner, who has been the best-hitting pitcher in all of baseball the past two seasons, unsurprisingly accounts for five of the nine home runs hit by San Francisco hurlers, with Tim Hudson, Ryan Vogelsong and Mike Leake each chipping in one.
Leake is also unusually good in the batter’s box for a pitcher, but Vogelsong and Hudson are closer to Peavy’s level.
With one current member of the starting rotation (rookie Chris Heston) yet to go deep this year, the Giants have a reasonable chance to be the first team ever with six different pitchers to homer in a season.
Heston doesn’t have any home runs in his 49 career at-bats, but he does have a pair of doubles, along with a strong (for a pitcher) .204/.204/.245 batting line.
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