Hunter Pence announces retirement at age 37

Hunter Pence (Arturo Pardavilla III, Wikimedia Commons)

Hunter Pence of Fort Worth, Texas, one of the most productive outfielders in Major League Baseball over the last 14 years, has announced his retirement at age 37. From 2007 to 2020, Pence played eight seasons with the San Francisco Giants, five seasons with the Houston Astros, two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, and one season with the Texas Rangers.

In 2020 Pence returned to the Giants after being an all-star in 2019 with the Rangers. However, he struggled at the plate and only hit .096 in 52 at bats. In 17 games and 56 plate appearances, Pence only scored four runs, and had five hits, one triple, two home runs, six runs batted in, three walks, an on-base percentage of .161, slugging percentage of .250, and 13 total bases.

Pence’s struggles in 2020 were a stark difference to his productive 2019 season when he batted .297 with 18 home runs and 59 runs batted in. For his career, Pence was a .279 hitter with 244 home runs, and 942 runs batted in. He also scored 891 runs, had 1791 hits, 324 doubles, 55 triples, 120 stolen bases, 520 walks, a .334 on-base percentage, .461 slugging percentage, and  2957 total bases.

However, it was in the 2014 World Series, where Pence was able to shine the most. He batted .444 in seven postseason games as the Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals four games to three. In most years, batting .444 is good enough to be named World Series MVP. However that year, Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgartner was flawless on the mound as he had an earned run average of 0.43 in 21 innings of work. Pence also won the 2012 World Series with the Giants.

In 2020, the Giants were in the playoff hunt until the very end. However, they lost three of four games to the San Diego Padres over the weekend and were beaten out by the Milwaukee Brewers. The Giants and Brewers had identical records of 29 wins and 31 losses, however, Milwaukee had a better record within their division and got the tiebreaker. The Brew Crew were at 19 wins and 21 losses against National League Central Division foes, while the Giants were at 18 wins and 22 losses against teams from the National League West.

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