Football, it is often said, is a game of inches. On Tuesday night in Colorado, baseball was as well as Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers came up 12 inches short of mashing a 500-foot home run against the Rockies.
Leading off for the Brew Crew, Yelich smashed a 499-foot blast into the third deck at Coors Field to give Milwaukee the lead in what would eventually be a 10-7 loss for the Brewers in 10 innings.
“It felt pretty good, but obviously a tough night afterward for us,” Yelich said of his dominant dinger. “It’s one of those ones where everything kind of lines up for you, catching a really good spot. Oddly enough, it was my first home run [at Coors Field] in nine or 10 times playing here [100 previous at-bats], so I guess if you’re gonna wait that long, make it count.”
Yelich’s tater was the longest home run in the majors this season and the third-longest homer since Statcast started tracking longballs in 2015. (Texas’ Nomar Mazara hit a 505-foot shot in 2019 and Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton hit a 504-footer at Colorado in 2016.) In an interesting twist, Yelich was actually on base at Coors Field when Stanton, who now plays for the Yankees, hit his blast. “Stanton got that one pretty good,” Yelich recalled. “He hits balls like that all the time, but I do actually remember that one. It was a pretty good one.”
Yelich’s homer, which far surpassed his previous mark of 462 feet, displaced the 496-foot ball that Miami’s Jesús Sánchez hit as the longest home run of the season. Sánchez’s epic deep ball was also hit at Coors Field.
“At least give me the extra foot,” Yelich said of missing the 500-foot club. “It’ll be cooler tomorrow after the tough loss wears off, but yeah, we need the extra 12 inches.”
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