22-year-old pitcher Huascar Ynoa has been very impressive on the mound for the Atlanta Braves this season, taking a 2.96 ERA into action on Tuesday. And he lowered that ERA to 2.36 after throwing seven innings with no earned runs allowed against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
Ynoa has also been very impressive in the batter’s box, and that too continued on Tuesday night.
With two outs and the Braves leading 2-0 in the top of the sixth, Ynoa cranked a 427-foot grand slam. This is big-time power from anybody, but especially the pitcher.
HUASCAR YNOA GRAND SLAM pic.twitter.com/1ll7yEnkN5
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) May 5, 2021
And that comes one start afer Ynoa homered against the Chicago Cubs.
🚨 PITCHER HOME RUN 🚨
Huascar Ynoa goes yard. pic.twitter.com/jYk05JaQzv
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) April 29, 2021
Homers in back-to-back games he pitched. As you’d imagine, that’s quite rare. Ynoa becomes the first pitcher to homer in back-to-back games since Steven Matz did so for the New York Mets in 2018.
Huascar Ynoa is the 1st pitcher with a home run in back-to-back games since Steven Matz in Sept. 2018
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) May 5, 2021
More interesting Ynoa factoids:
Freddie Freeman: 105 bases loaded PAs before hitting 1 Grand Slam
Huascar Ynoa: 1 bases loaded opportunity, 1 Grand Slam
— Talking Chop (@TalkingChop) May 5, 2021
Huascar Ynoa has more homers and RBIs this season than Francisco Lindor. Baseball is weird.
— Jason Foster (@ByJasonFoster) May 5, 2021
Braves pitcher Huascar Ynoa hit a 427-foot grand slam, the longest of the 13 grand slams hit by pitchers since 2006.
It's Ynoa's 2nd home run this season. All other pitchers have 2 HR combined, including 1 by Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 5, 2021
Huascar Ynoa of the @Braves is the 3rd pitcher to have back-to-back starts where he allowed no earned runs on the mound while also homering at the plate since earned runs became official in 1913.
He joins the Yankees' Don Larsen (1958) and the Cardinals' Rick Ankiel (2000).
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) May 5, 2021
Anything else Ynoa does on offense this year is a bonus for the Braves. They just hope he can keep pitching anything like he has been. But it’s clear he’s a very real threat at the plate, and maybe he’ll crank many more dingers in the coming years.