Just about the only bright spot in yesterday’s loss to the Braves was a right-handed blast by Ian Happ, which accounted for the Cubs’ only run in the game.
You can see the full video here at MLB.com, and a shorter version here:
Ian Happ hits his 21st home run. pic.twitter.com/FjYsoEmqUu
— Kevin Marchina (@kg_holler) September 3, 2017
Happ almost never hits a cheap one. That was 108 mph off the bat, and 419 feet out to deep left center. It’s always nice to see him wreck one right-handed, too, as he’s hit just four homers from that side of the plate this year, and is batting .275/.313/.473 (97 wRC+) from that side overall.
The homer was Happ’s 21st of the year, quite a sum for the rookie utility man when you consider his youth and relative inexperience. There was a version of the 2017 season where we didn’t even expect to see Happ at the big league level until perhaps now, as a September call-up. Talk about forcing the issue.
Because Happ was on a homer binge at AAA before he came up to the big league team, yesterday’s homer was his 30th overall on the season, with 9 at AAA and 21 in the big leagues.
For fun: Kyle Schwarber hit 32 homers between AA, AAA, and MLB in 2015. Kris Bryant hit 29 between AAA and MLB in 2015. Anthony Rizzo hit 38 between AAA and MLB in 2012.