San Francisco Giants All-Star Slugger Makes Stunning Statcast Era Franchise History

The San Francisco Giants were playing a massive series against the Milwaukee Brewers this week at Oracle Park.

It was a good measuring stick opportunity for a Giants squad that has gotten off to a hot start, which some people are skeptical of. Confidence in the team would rise if they could handle business against the defending National League Central champions who are going to factor into the playoff picture again in 2025.

San Francisco certainly did its job, winning three out of four games to put themselves in a great position should tiebreakers come into play at the end of the season.

It was a hard-fought series, with the Giants actually having a negative run differential, losing by eight and winning their games by three, two and one run, respectively.

In the series finale, a 6-5 come-from-behind victory on Thursday afternoon, one of the heroes of the game was third baseman Matt Chapman.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, with San Francisco trailing 5-2, the star third baseman stepped to the plate against relief pitcher Abner Uribe.

He got into a hitter’s count, with Uribe firing a sinker in on a 2-1 count. Chapman was ready for it, launching it over the center field fence for a two-run home run to cut the deficit down to 5-4.

It was Chapman’s fifth home run of the season, and it turned out to be a first for an MLB player this season.

As shared by Eno Sarris of The Athletic on X, his long ball is the first this season off a pitch that was traveling 100+ mph.

Booth reporting that Matt Chapman's homer was the first in the majors this year off a 100+ mph pitch. I think people don't understand how good Chapman is because his batting average is usually mediocre.
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) April 24, 2025

Statcast measured Uribe’s offering at 100.4 mph before Chapman planted it over the fence.

Not only was it the first home run off a triple-digit speed pitch this season, but he made franchise history as well.

As shared by Sarah Langs on MLB.com on X, that is the fastest pitch a Giants player has hit a home run off of in the pitch-tracking era, which began in 2008.

The previous high was set just last year when outfielder Heliot Ramos hit a home run on Sept. 15, 2024, off a pitch that was thrown 100.2 mph.

Matt Chapman homered on a 100.4 mph pitch

That’s the fastest pitch a Giants player has homered off of under pitch tracking (2008)

Surpasses Heliot Ramos off 100.2 mph on 9/15/24 https://t.co/3bXBthY1NB
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 24, 2025

It goes to show how talented these hitters are even making contact with pitches thrown so hard since hitting them out of the park for home runs is far and few between.

Thus far this season, Chapman has been one of the driving forces behind San Francisco’s hot start.

He has a slash line of .227/.393/.443 with five home runs, six doubles and 16 RBI. He has drawn an MLB-high 24 walks and continues to provide elite defense at the hot corner.

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