The New York Yankees have a wealth of players who can smash the seams off of a baseball, and on Wednesday evening vs. the Houston Astros, one of them hit the hardest ball of the season.
Giancarlo Stanton stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the third inning with New York already possessing a 4-1 lead. Fellow sluggers Juan Soto and Aaron Judge have already mashed dingers of their own earlier in the game, and it wouldn’t take long for the former Miami Marlin to join them.
New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) celebrates his solo home run against the Houston Astros in the dugout with teammates during the third inning at Yankee Stadium. Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
With a 1-2 count, Stanton blasted a 447-foot home run to left field that ended up being the fastest-hit ball so far this season. The homer was Stanton’s eighth of the year and had an exit velocity of 119.9 mph.
It’s a blast that you have to see to believe.
The homer was Stanton’s eighth of the year. Entering the Wednesday night matchup, he had tallied a .227 batting average and 19 RBI.
The 34-year-old is your typical power hitter. While he can blast a ball over the outfield fence with ease, Stanton struggles to make consistent contact at the plate. In his career, he has nearly 2,000 strikeouts. Luckily for the Yankees, Stanton has decreased the amount of strikeouts he records in a given season; but that could partly be due to a reduction in playing time.
With Soto and Judge on the roster, the pressure isn’t on Stanton to constantly be producing at the plate. This gives him the freedom to continue to go all-out in the batter’s box and not have the weight of the team completely on his shoulders.
With the amount of moonshots that Stanton has hit, it isn’t necessarily surprising to see him atop the exit velocity leaderboard. Still his home run on Wednesday night just how powerful he is at the plate.
