Salvador Perez hit a homer on a pitch so far off the plate no one had done it this year
Being a bad-ball hitter in baseball doesn’t mean a player doesn’t make contact on good pitches, too. They do that, of course, but also hit some pitches that seem too far out of the strike zone to be put in play.
It’s fair to say Royals catcher Salvador Perez can be classified as a bad-ball hitter. On Tuesday, there was an example of the amazing things he can do on pitches not in the strike zone in the Royals’ 9-7 win over the White Sox in Chicago.
White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito threw a fastball off the plate and likely hoped Perez would swing at it. Perez did and not only made contact, he crushed the pitch 372 feet for an opposite-field home run (oppo taco).
This is impressive.
How amazing was that home run?
According to MLB.com’s Anne Rogers, the pitch from Giolito was 1.19 feet from the center of the plate. That pitch was the farthest outside hit for a home run by a right-handed batter this season, Rogers noted on Twitter.
This shows how absurd it was for Perez to hit a homer on that particular pitch.
