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Giants' Bumgarner shows off BP power in a game

It has been a joke around the batting cage, especially when the San Francisco Giants are struggling on offense, that Madison Bumgarner ought to hit in the middle of the lineup.

His BPs are pretty fabulous sometimes.

And, sometimes, he carries that into games. Like Tuesday.

Bumgarner got the biggest hit in the Giants' 9-8 victory, a 416-foot three-run homer that tied the score 4-4, completing a comeback from a 4-0 deficit.

Angel Pagan hit a triple that tied the great Willie Mays and Steve Finley on the all-time San Francisco list, but it was Bumgarner's homer that got the Giants on track.

The blast was more memorable than his pitching. He failed to last five innings and gave up five runs on 11 hits. The Giants got enough hitting, including four RBI from Brandon Belt, and enough from the bullpen to hold off the Rockies and move six games in first place over the Dodgers, who lost, in the NL West.

Bumgarner has been in a recent rut with his road splits, and on Tuesday he got a little help from a friend: himself.