We’re back at it this week as we continue to count down the longest home runs hit by Cincinnati Reds players in the 2022 season. Today we are looking at the number five spot on the list. Over the last decade or so we’ve been given the ability to at least *sort of* be able to compare the distances on home runs thanks to ball tracking technologies, making lists like this a lot more fun to look at because there’s not nearly as much guesswork on it as there used to be.
The 5th longest home run of the season in 2022 came on April 27th by Brandon Drury. The now former Red hit the ball an estimated 437 feet.
The Video
The Metrics Behind The Blast
Dinelson Lamet was trying to hold onto a big lead for the Padres and he thought it was a good idea to fire a 95 MPH fastball in the middle of the zone. Brandon Druy also thought it was a good idea and he met the ball with the barrel of the bat and sent it 437 feet deep into left-center at 107 MPH.
Distance Metrics
Distance: 437 feet
Red ranks: 5th
Major League Baseball Rank: 273rd (tie)
Brandon Drury Rank: 1st
Other metrics
Launch Angle: 22°
Exit Velocity: 107.4 MPH
Reds Exit Velocity Rank (home runs only): 16th
MLB Exit Velocity Rank (home runs only): 1155th (tie)
The Story Behind The Blast
It wasn’t a great day for the Reds. They never had a lead and it was 5-0 early on and they had never gotten closer than 6-3. With the Padres leading 8-3 they brought Dinelson Lamet into the game for the 9th to try and hold on for the win. He struck out Jonathan India to begin the inning, but that’s when things stopped going his way as Brandon Drury crushed the first pitch he saw into the seats to make it 8-4. Lamet would allow three more base runners to reach before he was replaced in what turned into a Padres 8-5 win.
In a twist of fate, Brandon Drury would join the Padres later in the season via a trade deadline deal. He wouldn’t be teammates with Lamet, though, who was traded the day before to Milwaukee – where he never pitched because he was almost immediately placed on waivers and was then claimed by the Colorado Rockies.
You can follow along the entire series here