Home runs allowed by the Mets to opposing pitchers

On Saturday, Dillon Gee gave up a two-run home run to the opposing pitcher, Mike Minor of the Atlanta Braves, in the fifth inning of a tie game. It was the second home run Gee allowed against an opposing pitcher this year. In his previous start, which came against the Chicago Cubs on May 19, he gave up a home run to the opposing pitcher, Travis Wood, also in the fifth inning of a tie game.

After Saturday's game, Maggie wondered on Twitter which teams have given up the most home runs to pitchers lately, since it seems the Mets were doing so a lot lately.

From 2006 to 2012, the Mets were bad, but they weren't the worst. That honor belongs to the Cincinnati Reds. My query ignored home runs to pitchers with two appearances or less, hoping to eliminate position players like Jeff Mathis who threw a junk inning or two. It's worth noting that the Reds faced the Cubs a lot and gave up 6 of those 17 home runs to Carlos Zambrano, one of the best hitting pitchers in the game in those seasons.

The list of pitchers who hit home runs against the Mets features some good hitters, too.

Of all of the home runs, only Paul Maholm's home run against John Maine, a shot into the Mo's Zone, was hit at Citi Field. That makes Mike Minor's home run only the second by an opposing pitcher in Citi Field.

Also, the 2006 Mets gave up six home runs to pitchers, including two to Dontrelle Willis in the same game. The spike leads to the Mets showing up high on the list since 2006, but they fall to middle of the pack if the range of seasons starts in 2007 and near the bottom since if it starts in 2009.

To check if this was a recent trend, I ran two more sets of home runs: one from 1993 through 2012 and another from 2001 through 2012. The Mets fall to 5th since 2001 and are 11th on the list since 1993, and Cincinnati still tops both with 47 over the last two decades.

On the 1993-2012 list the Mets are 11th with 28, just one ahead of the Braves.

Overall, allowing home runs to opposing pitchers seems to have a lot to do with the ballpark in which a team plays, balanced out with a little bit of luck and the quality of the opposing hitters. It's just one of those interesting bits of trivia that makes baseball, specifically baseball without the designated hitter, so much fun.