CHICAGO -- There is a digital video board above the left-field bleachers at Wrigley Field that the Cubs installed in 2015. During each at-bat, the board displays a larger-than-life image of the player at the plate.
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Willson Contreras took aim at his own likeness in the second inning of Game 4 of the National League Championship Series presented by Camping World, drilling a home run a projected 491 feet -- the longest Statcast™ has ever tracked in the postseason -- off the LED display to give the Cubs their first run in a 3-2 win over the Dodgers, who still lead the best-of-seven series, 3-1.
"We needed somebody to get us on the board," Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo quipped. "And he did."
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Since Statcast™ began recording data in 2015, no one had previously hit a longer postseason homer than Kyle Schwarber's 459-foot shot off Mets pitcher Matt Harvey in the 2015 NLCS. Contreras easily eclipsed that with his 491-foot moonshot (Statcast™ projects how far the ball would have traveled had nothing -- like a giant video board, for example -- impeded its path to the ground.)
In addition to that homer, Dodgers starter Alex Wood allowed a pair of long balls to Cubs second baseman Javier Baez -- both on what the left-hander considered decent pitches. Not so on the 91-mph fastball Contreras hit for the loudest home run this postseason.
"I'd rather it be the one Contreras hit," Wood said. "I threw it middle-middle, he hit it 500 feet."