Even though Kyle Schwarber has only played in 73 regular season games since 2015, it appears he has found a pitching staff that he enjoys hitting goddamn moon shots off of.
Schwarber launched a bomb in the top of the seventh inning today to help spark the Cubs to a 6-4 come from behind win. I don’t know what was better — Schwarber admiring his missile or the Cardinals “big free agent signing” Brett Cecil knowing immediately that he just fucked up big time.
Welcome to the National League, Brett.
Kyle Schwarber is good at baseball. Smashes a go ahead 3 run HR. The first of many. Comeback story for the ages. pic.twitter.com/2Uuj2TdK3u
— Cubs Live (@Cubs_Live) April 6, 2017
That shot was the first home run off of Cardinals pitchers for Schwarber in regular season games but not his first home run off Cardinals pitchers overall. Every single Cubs fan knows Schwarber’s cannon shot that he hit during Game 4 of the 2015 NLDS against the Cardinals that ended up on top of the Wrigley Field video board.
That shot actually followed his first home run off Cardinals pitchers when he went yard in Game 3 of the 2015 NLDS but it was his Game 4 home run that will forever go down in Cubs lore.
While the height and distance of Schwarber’s bombs are jaw-dropping by themselves, it may be the ball’s exit velocity that is even more impressive. Schwarber’s average exit velocity in 2015 was 93.2 mph and he technically “led” the Cubs in exit velocity last year at 101.7 mph even though he only had four at-bats before being sidelined for the entire regular season.
Schwarber’s first home run of 2017 and his “video board” bomb were almost identical in terms of the speed the ball came off the bat.
Including playoffs Kyle Schwarber now has hit 22 HR. Todays HR was his 2nd hardest at 112.1 MPH 💪 His hardest 112.5, landed on a video board
— Daren Willman (@darenw) April 6, 2017
Obviously, the top two fastest home run balls off his bat came off Cardinals pitchers so it’s safe to say that the War Bear has found a staff stupid enough to keep challenging him with fastballs.
Keep feeding him the heat guys, I love watching him hit bombs.
