SAN FRANCISCO -- Don Mattingly doesn’t need data to know that
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That failed to impress Mattingly, who reached or exceeded 30 home runs three times during an illustrious 14-year career. Like many other observers, Mattingly casts some doubt upon the prodigious power displayed throughout the Major Leagues.\n\nTold of the projected 473-foot distance of Alfaro’s clout, Mattingly said, “This year you can’t really count any of that. When you go to different ballparks, during batting practice, you see balls go to places they never went before. Almost every club is setting franchise records in home runs. Obviously something is going on.”\n
But the force of Alfaro’s drive moved Mattingly nonetheless.\n\n“That ball was hit, though,” Mattingly said. “Georgie’s got tremendous power. I wouldn’t quite put him in [Giancarlo] Stanton’s category, but he’s in that [Marcell] Ozuna category where, when he hits them, they go. Right field. Center field. Left field. This kid’s got tremendous power. I don’t want to discount that.”\n\nAlfaro’s 15th homer of the season also elicited praise from the man who surrendered it. Bumgarner threw Alfaro an 0-1 curveball that Miami’s catcher golfed more than halfway up the left-field seats with Starlin Castro aboard.\n\n\"He did a really good job,” Bumgarner said. “That was a pretty good spot, I thought, to throw it. He just hit it. Obviously, looking back, I should have done something different, but I like the pitch, I like the location right there. That pitch in that spot gets a lot of swings and misses for me, and ground balls, too. Unfortunately, not in that case.\"\n
In fact, Alfaro was anticipating a fastball from Bumgarner. But Alfaro managed to adjust: “I saw [the ball] out of his hand and just waited for it.”\n\nAlfaro may have been helped by advice that he and other Marlins received from shortstop
Marlins right-hander