Bryce Smoked His Hardest HR Of The Statcast Era Last Night, A 116 MPH Rocket
Holy cow, that could have taken an old lady’s head off!
SN - Bryce Harper has hit plenty of home runs in his young career, 138 to be exact, but Thursday’s solo smash against the Mets was his hardest hit to date.
Harper connected on a 92-mph fastball from Mets pitcher Robert Gsellman in the first inning at Citi Field and recorded an exit velocity of 116.3 mph. It was Harper’s hardest-hit ball ever recorded by MLB.com’s Statcast.
The ball was crushed so hard, it ricocheted off the outfield sets and back into right field.
What an absolute rocket to right field. Good thing nobody was sitting in that seat eating popcorn or tweeting about how lucky they are to see Bryce live and in person, because that ball would have given them a concussion not seen since Tex stepped into a boxing ring.
Bryce got the Nats on the board early last night with that bullet, his 17th homer of the season to go with his 50th RBI, while maintaining a .314 average. What a bounce back season he’s having. After hitting only .243 with 24 dingers last year, he’s quietly and sneaky having a very similar dominating year like his 2015 MVP season.
And the crazy thing is Ryan Zimmerman is still beating him in all main offensive categories, and is 5 RBI behind pace for the triple crown.
Now if only the Nats could fix their all time worst bullpen (not hyperbole, this is the worst bullpen in Nats history), because they might actually have something here. Time to let Rizzo wheel and or deal, Lerners.
PS: Fun fact from KFC this morning- Bryce Harper is younger than Aaron Judge. This is Bryce’s 6th season and he’s played in 4 All Star Games and already won an MVP. He’s going to be SO RICH.