San Francisco Giants: Joe Panik, Pablo Sandoval enter franchise record book
By Keaton Moore
Amidst their disappointing season, a pair of San Francisco Giants put their names in the franchise record book, for good and bad.
As the San Francisco Giants near the end of a disappointing season, Joe Panik and Pablo Sandoval etched themselves into franchise history. The former broke a record with an unbelievable road trip and is close to breaking another. The latter adds a franchise record to his highly-decorated mantle with a disastrous stretch at the plate.
With 10 home runs this season, Panik tied the career high he set in 2016. However, of those he hit last season, three came at AT&T Park while this year every one of Panik’s home runs came on the road. The most any Giant hit without one at home was Todd Benzinger, who hit six in 1993.
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“There’s a stat for everything,” Panik said, per sfgate.com. “For me, it doesn’t matter whether you’re at home or on the road when you hit home runs. You play 162 games. Wherever you hit the ball, you hit the ball.”
His most recent homer came during the Giants’ three-game series against the Colorado Rockies, in which Panik broke a franchise three-game series record. After going 5-for-6 on Wednesday night, Panik went a record-breaking 12-for-15 in the series. Mike Benjamin previously held the record after posting 11 hits during a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs in 1995.
On the flip side, Sandoval set another unusual franchise record, but in a bad way. As Panik put his name in the Giants’ record books, Sandoval broke the longest hitless streak in franchise history. He entered Wednesday 0-for-37 and passed Johnnie LeMaster from 1984 with a pinch-hit strikeout in the sixth inning.
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Now, Sandoval is only eight hitless plate appearances away from tying the major league record, which is currently held by Eugenio Velez, who went 0-for-46 from 2010-2011.