Really no way to explain what was Dunn

Adam Dunn is proof of how crazy baseball can be.

Numbers crunchers can crunch all the numbers they want and some things still will defy mathematics.

Take Dunn’s career: A decade of some of the game’s best home run production; last year one of the worst batting seasons in major-league history; this year a chance to record his best season ever.

Whassup with that, anyway?

Dunn hit another homer Sunday in the White Sox’ 6-0 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

MLB.com’s Paul Casella tweeted that Dunn’s 14 home runs are his second most ever after 42 games.

So what happened last year, when Dunn signed with the Sox and proceeded to finish with 11 homers?

Last week Tigers manager Jim Leyland called it “a freak thing.” Sunday morning, Cubs manager Dale Sveum called it “very strange.”

Pick your own words for Dunn’s struggles a year ago and all would fit: An aberration, a mirage, a fluke or anything else.

But inexplicable seems to fit best.

Dunn changed leagues in 2011, he became a full-time designated hitter, and he underwent an appendectomy early.

Add all that up and it still isn’t conceivable that Dunn would average 40 home runs annually over a seven-year period and then hit 11.

“I don’t know what happened last year,” Leyland said. “People in the game like me felt he was the best power hitter in the game.”

Then faster than you can spell K as in strikeout, Dunn essentially was the worst hitter in the game.

Now faster than you can spell HR as in home run, Dunn is back to his old self.

Go figure … no, don’t, because it’ll be too maddening.

“There’s no explanation,” said Sveum, a former hitting coach. “Hitting is funny that way. You get in a funk and you can’t get out of it.”

I believe that a batter never knows why he went into a slump, and he never knows why he came out of it.

But that theory applies to maybe a couple of weeks, maybe 50 at-bats, but not an entire season from spring through summer into autumn.

“This year shocks nobody,” Leyland said of Dunn’s resurgence. “He hits home runs. Always, he hits home runs.”

Except for last season and baseball’s fickle gods.

Get too comfortable in the batter’s box and they’ll knock you on your fanny. Take too much for granted and they’ll tie you in knots. Think you have the game beat and they’ll beat you down.

Just ask Albert Pujols after the start he has had with the Angels.

Dunn never has been a conventional hitter, though it isn’t unusual for power hitters to be unconventional. He leads the American League in walks and strikeouts. When he puts the ball in play, however, there’s a good chance it’ll wind up where no outfielder has gone before.

Dunn’s comeback season is a relief to the Sox, especially general manager Kenny Williams, because Dunn is in the middle of a four-year, $56 million contract. If he keeps hitting the way he’s hitting, he’ll finish with more than 50 homers and more than 120 runs batted in.

Stick those numbers in your computer and crunch them.

“Whenever he comes to bat, he’s a threat to hit a home run,” Leyland said. “Especially (in Comiskey Park). It’s that simple.”

Sorry, but nothing about Adam Dunn’s past couple of seasons has been that simple.

mimrem@dailyherald.com