Sometimes it’s hard to determine whether what Madison Bumgarner does as a pitcher or a hitter is more impressive.

Entering Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves as one of the hottest pitchers in the major leagues, Bumgarner homered in the fifth inning, kick-starting a six-run rally in the San Francisco Giants’ 6-0 win.

The home run was Bumgarner’s second of the season. Noah Syndergaard of the New York Mets is the only other pitcher in the majors with more than one home run in 2016. Only two players on the Braves have more than two home runs this season.

Historical context

Looking at the context of Bumgarner’s team and all of baseball, he has been among the most prolific homer-hitting pitchers.

He is tied for third for most career home runs by a pitcher in the divisional era, which started in 1969.

Since the start of the 2012 season, Bumgarner has 13 home runs. The next most by a pitcher in that time is seven (Travis Wood). Bumgarner has 39 RBIs since the start of 2012; the next closest by a pitcher is 24, by Adam Wainwright.

Bumgarner is within striking distance of the Giants’ franchise record for home runs by a pitcher. Elias Sports Bureau research shows that Hal Schumacher and Johnny Antonelli, with 15 each, lead the franchise in that category.

Among pitchers who have hit at least 10 home runs, Bumgarner has the third-best home run percentage (2.8 percent). The leader is Clint Hartung (1947-52) at 3.5 percent, and second is Carlos Zambrano (2001-12) at 3.2 percent. (Hartung, who played for the Giants, split time between the mound and the outfield; he had 72 starts as a pitcher and 41 as an outfielder.)

He did it on the mound, too

Bumgarner struck out 11 against the Braves, against four hits and two walks, in 7 2/3 innings. It was his third game in which he homered and struck out at least 10.

Elias research shows that he trails only Steve Carlton (five such games) in the divisional era in attaining those milestones.

Thursday’s game was the ninth of Bumgarner’s career in which he had at least 10 strikeouts and allowed no runs. That’s the fourth-most such starts in the majors since the start of 2011, behind Clayton Kershaw (18) and Max Scherzer and Yu Darvish, who both have 10.

Bumgarner got nine swing-and-misses and six strikeouts on his fastball, both season highs. He allowed fly balls on 18 percent of balls in play -- a season low -- and induced pop-ups on 18 percent of balls in play -- a season high.

Since April 25, Bumgarner’s 1.11 ERA is the best in the major leagues. He is 6-0 in that time.

Fifth inning an odd one

Bumgarner’s home run was the first of three the Giants hit in the fifth inning. It followed a walk to Gregor Blanco.

After Bumgarner’s home run, Denard Span walked. And Joe Panik followed that with another two-run homer.

Matt Duffy then was hit by a pitch, and Buster Posey hit the third two-run home run of the inning.

It was the Giants' second three-home run inning this season (also done April 4 at the Milwaukee Brewers). The Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles are the only other teams with multiple innings of at least three home runs this season.

Did you know?

The Giants are 10-3 when Bumgarner hits a homer.