It was a game-changer for the Atlanta Braves on their way to the World Title, but how far did that home run really travel?
It’s Game 6 of the 2021 World Series. Top of the 3rd inning. No score. The Atlanta Braves have a mild threat going against Houston starter Luis Garcia.
Ozzie Albies had led off the inning with a single that was sharply lined into right field between a pair of shifted infielders. He was the first base-runner of the game for the Braves.
Travis d’Arnaud and Dansby Swanson followed with outfield flyouts — the latter went 332 feet, but not quite squared up enough to do damage.
Eddie Rosario then drew a 2-out walk to bring up Jorge Soler.
Now Garcia had made Soler look almost foolish at the plate in the first inning with a big slider that induced a flailing swing on a 3-2 count. That was out #2 with no one on base at the time.
In this 3rd inning, though, Garcia had a quandary: behind Soler was Freddie Freeman… a right-on-left matchup that he certainly did not want to face, especially given that his best scenario would be a bases-loaded situation.
But the AB lingered on and Garcia had already shown Soler his best stuff in that first inning. It would be both gutsy and risky to throw that big slider again in this situation.
Three cutters and a fastball led to a 3-1 count. Danger. Two sliders were then thrown for strikes… one looking and the other fouled off.
With the count at 3-2 (again), he challenged Soler with a 96 mph fastball… lowish and near the middle of the plate. Another foul. Garcia is still one strike away from getting out of the inning unscathed.
Now what? Soler had either covered or spit on everything in his arsenal, but after the heater, Garcia and catcher Maldonado settled on a cutter… probably hoping that the change of pace (13 mph slower) would catch Soler off guard.
Not only did that not happen, but he threw it in virtually the same location as the previous pitch: thigh-high and on the inner half of the plate… but it stayed in that location only for a microsecond as the ball was turned around and carried with it all the air in the park… despite the roof being open.
3-0 Braves. It was a momentum shifter that the Astros never recovered from.
Statcast ridiculously reported the distance on this 109.6 mph blast at 446 feet… but then again, that was probably the limits of its vision since there’s usually a wall of glass just beyond the train tracks.
This ball left the stadium.