This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BOSTON – Sitting in my perch in the front row of the press box at Fenway Park, where I’ve been stationed for nearly a quarter-century, you sometimes see something extraordinary.
In Friday night’s 6-4 win over the Giants, my initial reaction was that Willson Contreras hit one of the most majestic home runs you will ever see at Fenway Park.
In today’s world of data, you can actually see if your eyes are telling you the truth. In this case, my 54-year-old eyes weren’t lying.
Per Statcast, the blast soared off the bat of Contreras at an exit velocity of 116 mph, a launch angle of 30 degrees and a projected distance of 452 feet. His bat speed was 82 mph.
There’s something more intriguing about baseballs that go over everything in left field at Fenway because it makes your imagination travel a little differently than when you can actually see it land at some far-away destination in the ballpark.
Making this one even more interesting is that the ball disappeared into the darkness of night and none of the camera angles had a shot of it hitting the ground. The Green Monster is only 310 feet from home plate, which tells you the ball wasn’t nearly finished traveling when it left the yard.
“That was a crazy homer,” said Contreras. “I mean, that's one of the best swings I ever had in my career, and I'm happy it happened here.”
What is the feeling like when a player hits a ball that hard and that far?
“Nothing, you feel nothing. You feel like everything is light, nothing is heavy. Everything feels perfect,” said Contreras. “That's one of those feelings that you want to get back, and it happens once in a while, but I enjoyed it as much as I could.”
Contreras knew he got all of it, but didn’t know the full extent until he was briefed on the metrics.
“I knew I hit it well, and I knew I hit it hard, but I wasn't expecting it to be at 116 [mph] and 30 [degree launch angle],” said Contreras. “When I got to the dugout, the guys started joking around. I was like, ‘How hard did I hit that?’ They made me guess. ‘I was like I don't know, 110?’ But they told me 116. I couldn't believe it. I had to watch it myself.”
Only one other time in his career did Contreras hit a ball that hard, and it was on May 31, 2022. But that 116 mph shot against the Brewers at Wrigley Field went a mere 378 feet with an 18-degree launch angle.
It was the sixth hardest-hit homer in MLB this season, not far behind the 116.9 mph rip by Pittsburgh’s O’Neil Cruz that currently tops the list for this season. His bad speed was also the 15th-highest on the nearly 4,500 home runs hit across the Majors this year.
Since the launch of Statcast in 2015, how many Red Sox players have hit a homer at a greater exit velocity?
Not many.
Franchy Cordero scorched one at 118.6 mph on May 23, 2021. Hanley Ramirez mashed a 117.5 mph special on April 11, 2018. Rafael Devers, who was in town this weekend to watch the missile by Contreras, had a 116.5 mph homer on Sept. 8, 2020.
Contreras ranks fourth over that span of nearly 12 seasons.
But the best career bolt for Contreras – particularly when you consider the stage – was a 491-footer in Game 4 of the 2017 NLCS at Wrigley against the Dodgers, the only game the Cubs won in that series.
Contreras is pretty fond of this one also. He has just one regret.
“I mean, [491] feet is a long home run for sure,” Contreras said. “But I bet if it had been a day game, it would have gone further. I’ll take it though. It was a homer that helped the team to win, and that’s all that matters.”