I’m going to go out on a limb and make a bold prediction: I like the Giants chances when Aubrey Huff hits three home runs in a game.
Facts about Huff after tonight’s three home run game. If you follow my Twitter account, you’ve probably already read some of these.
* Before the game, Huff entered play with a .348 slugging percentage, he exits with a .403 SLG – that’s a 55 point increase in just a single game. Not bad for a night’s work.
* Huff surpasses the .400 SLG mark for the first time since April 6, 2011.
* Since 1919, 25 Giants have hit 3 or more home runs in a game, Huff is now number 26. He joins greats such as Barry Bonds (4 times), Mays (3), and McCovey (3).
* The last Giant to hit three home runs in a game was J.T. Snow way back in 2004 against the Phillies. That was the amazing year of ‘Bizzaro Snow’ where Snow posted a 146 OPS+ in 107 games.
Baseball is a sport with an exceptionally long season. Players go through ups-and-downs and at the end, you hope you’re more up than down. So, even if a three jack game is amazing, we should take it in stride — well, as much as you can take that sort of thing in stride. It goes without saying that the Giants will need Huff to bounce back to something closer to his career levels instead of the current .276 wOBA version they’ve had for most of the season. Let’s hope that Huff is poised to go on a nice little run. A couple of .900 OPS months could go a long way to helping out an offense that’s struggled all year.
