by 
Aristides Aquino’s Timeline of Punishment
- First Major League Homer
- Obliteration
- Hardest Hit
- The (First) One Off Yu Darvish
- Start of a Huge Day
- Kyle Hendricks Tried Another Sinker
- Farthest Hit
- “A Loud Sound”
- Out of the Strike Zone
- Adam Wainwright Turned to Look Way Up
- “You Can’t Stop This Kid!”
The eleventh post in a series looking at Aristides Aquino’s historic home run streak.
[Credit: https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1162889737931280387]
Home Run #11
Aquino had homered the previous night as the Cardinals evened up the four-game series 1-1. The Reds had a 2-1 lead in this game when Josh VanMeter and Freddy Galvis singled with two outs in the 5th. Aquino came to the plate and swung at the first pitch he saw.
Here is the graphic display.
[Graphic: Baseball Savant]
The Pitch
This was Aquino’s third plate appearance of the game. He had two long at bats earlier, but both ended in outs, both outs on Mikolas’ slider. In fact, Aquino had seen 14 pitches in those two previous appearances, including 6 sliders. So when Aquino saw Mikolas flip a lazy slider up there at 86 mph to start his third at bat, the Reds right fielder was locked and pounced. The ball was in the strike zone but outside, allowing Aquino to get his arms fully extended. Mikolas didn’t even bother to look.
The Hit
It’s clear from the video that Aquino was looking for Mikolas’s slider. He mashed it 408 feet to dead center field with an exit velocity of 104.6 mph. This was another one of Aquino’s homers with arc to it, at 30º launch angle.
The real joy of reliving this is hearing the Cardinals announcers say “You can’t stop this kid!” when calling the play. [Click on the picture to see the video.]
The History
Since #11 was just a day after #10, there were good odds that it would also be record breaking. Aquino became the fastest player in the history of the game to reach 11 career home runs (17 games). He was just the second Reds player to hit 10 homers in 11 games since 1906. The other player to do it was Hall of Famer Frank Robinson in 1962. Aquino now had 11 homers in August, so he began to close in on other records related to homers in a month.
[Credit: https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1162889737931280387]
The Game
RC+ Game Preview | RC+ Game Recap
The Reds relied on a strong start by Anthony DeSclafani and 4 innings of solid bullpen work to beat the Cardinals 6-1. Aquino’s homer put the game out of reach for St. Louis.
