MIAMI – Braves fans watching Thursday’s 9-3 win against the Marlins at loanDepot park might have thought they were seeing a replay when Michael Harris II homered in the top of the first inning.
For the second time in the four-game series, Harris sent a ball into the small patch of turf beyond the wall above the teal Norwegian cruise line sign. The area saw three home runs during the series — two from Harris and one from Mike Yastrzemski.
“Maybe a little bit,” Harris said when asked if he felt he had some magic working. “I needed some help to get it out, and I just got lucky both times, and both went to the same spot.”
On Thursday, Harris’ 110.5 mph blast against Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara came off the bat at 18 degrees, had a hang time of 4.4 seconds and traveled a Statcast-projected 418 feet to right-center field.
It was almost a carbon copy of the homer he hit two days prior on Tuesday.
That one, hit in the sixth inning off lefty Andrew Nardi, was 110.1 mph with a 19-degree launch angle, had a hang time of 4.3 seconds and traveled 421 feet before landing on the same patch of turf over the wall in right-center field.
Harris even had the same exact bat speed on both homers: 78.7 mph.
“It was close, kind of the same angle, same activity, location,” Harris said. “It was crazy…I thought about it after I got into the dugout [after the second home run].”
The déjà vu in right-center field also connected him to another moment involving Alcantara nearly four years ago.
On May 28, 2022, Harris recorded his first Major League hit against Alcantara with a single to left field at Truist Park. That hit had an exit velocity of 100.8 mph.
“This is my [fourth] year facing him and I actually got my first hit off of him so [I have] history with him,” Harris said. “[Today I was] just seeing every pitch at my at-bats, fouling it off and then I got the changeup hanging [in the first], put a swing on it and it happened to get out.”
Harris added his second homer of the night -- and third of the series -- as insurance in the ninth inning off a four-seam fastball from Pete Fairbanks.
The outfielder now has 11 home runs this season, the third-most on the Braves behind Matt Olson (14) and Drake Baldwin (13).
A recent switch in the batting order may have helped unlock the stretch. Harris hit in the fifth and sixth spots on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, before moving into the two-hole for the final two games of the series
“I was looking forward to seeing him [hit second],” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “He had been swinging the bat so well, and he looked at home in that second spot.”
Switching around his lineup is one of the privileges Weiss enjoys, along with the production reflected on the scoreboard. The display highlights some of the Braves’ league-leading offense, like first in MLB in RBIs (270), batting average (.266) and slugging percentage (.445), as well as the best record in the league at 35-16.
“When you're swinging the bat well, it doesn't matter where you know we are in the lineup,” Weiss said. “I think it's nice [when] the lineup turns over. You got Ronald [Acuña Jr.] and Michael Harris staring at you, [Matt] Olson.
“I mean, it's pretty dangerous.”