Yesterday, the Miami Marlins beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the annual Orange Juice Cup (that’s not a real thing … yet), by a final score of 10-6. The game marked a season high in hits and runs for the Marlins, and even ended with a brilliant, five-star sliding catch from Ichiro Suzuki. But none of that was the highlight of the day.
Instead, that distinction belongs to one Marcell Ozuna who hit the “2011 American League Wild Card” banner hanging from the rafters of Tropicana Field in left:
Aim for the back wall, right?
Marcell Ozuna smashes a 468-foot blast, his longest HR of the #Statcast era. https://t.co/GB1y3tcsc0 pic.twitter.com/G76hOUDbzv
— #Statcast (@statcast) May 4, 2017
According to Statcast, that ball traveled 468 feet – Ozuna’s longest home run in the Statcast era – after leaving the bat at a 31 degree launch angle and 112.2 MPH. But if you ask me, it looked a heck of a lot further than that.
Ozuan’s now slashing .300/.360/.570 with eight home runs and just under 1.0 WAR. Not a bad start.
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