D-backs SS Ketel Marte caught a 100-mph pitch for a home run
Jul 20, 2017, 1:25 PM
Ketel Marte belts a two-run home run over the wall in right field for his second of the season, giving the D-backs an 8-2 lead in the 9th!!! pic.twitter.com/gaqCv5iaAZ
— TheRenderMLB (@TheRenderMLB) July 20, 2017
Already leading 6-2 heading into the top of the ninth inning, the Arizona Diamondbacks felt it necessary to abuse the Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen for six insurance runs before the 12-2 win was said and done.
It’s how most of those late runs were acquired that might have eyeballs bulging out of skulls.
Facing Ariel Hernandez, who is averaging the eight-fastest fastball in the majors this season at 98 mph, the D-backs recorded four hits off pitches that all surpassed 99 mph. Two of those were home runs, and the first one by Ketel Marte took the cake.
The shortstop redirected a pitch clocking in at 99.7 mph. And he did so as Hernandez tried to zip it under the strike zone around Marte’s ankles.
Pitch was 100 mph on the nose and Ketel Marte golfed it out. Baseball in 2017. pic.twitter.com/jvSqAUK4cg
— Mike Axisa (@mikeaxisa) July 20, 2017
Per MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer, that was the league’s second home run off a 100-mph pitch on the year, and colleague Daren Willman said it was the fastest pitch hit for a homer in Diamondbacks team history.
If that’s No. 1, then Jake Lamb’s second three-run bomb of the day minutes later is close behind. According to StatCast, that pitch was a sluggish 99.1 mph.
The two home runs sandwiched a single off a 99.7 mph pitch by David Peralta and A.J. Pollock’s double off a 99.4 mph pitch.
Considering that very fast pitches tend to not end with batters reaching first base, let alone home plate, all of this was mighty impressive.
That, or the radar gun was reading a little hot.
