Minnesota Twins’ utility man Willians Astudillo has made quite the headlines this month, from performing a remarkable slide to pitching a perfect inning (including a pitch clocked at 46 miles per hour). At home Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, “La Tortuga” (“The Turtle”) made some more news, blasting a high pitch from J.T. Brubaker over the left field fence in Target Field:
How did La Tortuga hit this out?! 😱 pic.twitter.com/WFy6DiptJw
— MLB (@MLB) April 24, 2021
That was Astudillo’s first home run of the year. And as per MLB’s Sarah Langs, it came off the highest pitch anyone in MLB had homered off since 2019, and off the second-highest pitch a Twins’ player had ever been tracked homering off of:
Willians Astudillo homered off a pitch that was 4.24 ft above the ground
That's the highest pitch hit for a HR this season, and the highest since September 2019
There's been just 1 Twins HR on a higher pitch in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) pic.twitter.com/vPDET6LiC4
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 24, 2021
The 29-year-old Astudillo has mostly been a part-time utility player for the Twins this season, appearing at first base in five games, at shortstop in four games, at third base in three, and at catcher in one. He’s playing first against the Pirates. And heading into this game, his batting line of .286/.278/.343 wasn’t great. But he’s certainly found ways to contribute, and this homer off an incredibly high pitch was impressive.
[Sarah Langs on Twitter]
