The Giants hit three of the more unlikely back-to-back-to-back home runs you'll ever see
One home run is fun. Two home runs in a row is a dream. Three -- on Opening Day, no less?! I mean, that's not possible, right?
While I'm not sure what the mathematicians would say about probabilities, the Giants most certainly proved it was possible on Monday when the team hit back-to-back-to-back dingers in their Opening Day tilt against the Brewers.
Opening Day Back-to-Back-to-Back HR
— James Smyth (@JamesSmyth621) April 4, 2016
4-19-48 Red Sox Spence/Stephens/Doerr
4-1-97 Padres Gomez/Henderson/Veras
4-4-16 Giants Span/Panik/Posey
But while you'll occasionally see three homers in a row, the Giants' combo was one of the unlikeliest you'll ever see with Denard Span, Joe Panik and Buster Posey teeing off.
Though Posey has power, it's of the 20-home run kind rather than the towering, league-leading variety. Meanwhile, Span hasn't topped five home runs in a year since he set his career-high with eight in 2008, and Panik has never hit more than eight in a year in either the Majors or Minors.
Put all together, the three averages one home run every 54 plate appearances. Given an average of four plate appearances per game, that means one of them homers in about every fifth contest. That they did it all in one game, in a row, on Opening Day and, well, we put that into our highly advanced baseball math machines and ...
It's unlikely is all we know.
The Giants finished with four home runs in their 12-3 victory, their most on Opening Day since April 14, 1964, when Willie Mays hit two of the Giants' five homers.
