NEWSLETTER
When the Cubs, collectively, hit three homers in a single game, I’m comfortable calling that a homer party.
But two? Eh. I don’t think that’s quite fair. More like a homer get-together. It’s still fun, though, especially when the dingers come off of notoriously slow-pitching righty Jered Weaver, and get turned around in a hurry as they did last night.
Willson Contreras got things started for the Cubs, bringing them to an early 1-1 tie with this blast out to left center. The Home Run Tracker had that one at 416 feet, and off the bat at 105.0 mph. What’s especially neat about the Contreras homer, outside of the fact that it was his first since July 4, was that it came on a perfectly-located 86 mph fastball. Weaver, whose fastball is averaging under 84 mph this year, actually threw that one with more velocity than usual right to the outer edge of the plate where he was trying to go. For him, it was a perfectly executed pitch. And Contreras exploded it.[adinserter block=”1″]
Although the fist pump came much later after he gunned a runner out at second, I like to picture this now (or a finger wag) when Contreras goes deep:
Eight straight wins matches our season high! #LetsGo pic.twitter.com/y1kKzr8OHh
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 10, 2016
A couple innings later, Kris Bryant nearly doubled the velocity of a 77 mph cement mixer, 414 feet (or 418, per Home Run Tracker) out to the deck behind the bleachers, and almost out onto Waveland Avenue:
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So, that one wasn’t hit quite twice as hard as it was pitched, but it does make me wonder what the largest spread is this year between the velocity of the pitch and the exit velocity of the batted ball. I suppose you’ve gotta figure Giancarlo Stanton wrecked at 75 mph curveball at 115 mph or something this year.
In any case, I enjoyed watching the homers last night. The end.
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