With the Cincinnati Reds playing in the Grand Canyon Miami Marlins home stadium it seemed less than likely that Aristides Aquino could chase down history. But then again, that’s all that Aquino has been doing since he arrived in the Major Leagues less than a month ago. He entered the game sitting on 12 home runs in 99 career plate appearances.
In his first trip to the plate tonight, his 100th career trip to the plate in the Major Leagues, Aristides Aquino unloaded on a 91 MPH pitch from Sandy Alcantara and put that thing way up into the stands. The ball game in 21 MPH slower than it left. Aquino hit it 418 feet down the line, just shot of striking the video board deep in left field. The 3-run home run gave the Reds an early 3-0 lead.
100 plate appearances, 13 dingers. ?#ThePunisher | #BornToBaseball pic.twitter.com/Vqexm5hFmy
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) August 28, 2019
The home run gave The Punisher 41 home runs on the season between Triple-A Louisville and the Major Leagues. And he’s done it in just 421 plate appearances. It gave him the most home runs EVER through a players first 100 plate appearances in the Major Leagues. It also gave him the record for most home runs through 27 career Major League games. It’s just another one marked off of the list for Aristides Aquino. He now has the the Major League record for fewest games to reach career home runs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
Aristides Aquino needs one more homer to tie the Cincinnati Reds franchise record for most home runs in a month. Greg Vaughn (September 1999) and Frank Robinson (August 1962) hold the current record with 14. Aquino is in a 4-way tie with Ted Kluszewski, George Foster, and Frank Robinson with 13. The Reds and Aquino will still play another four games this month. Oh, and another 8 innings of the game currently being played.
Jim, this article was from earlier this week, but I took a dive into the plate approach thus far in the Majors, and while it may feel like Aquino isn’t chasing pitches, he is and he is doing it an awful lot.
https://redlegnation.com/2019/08/26/finding-a-comparison-for-reds-outfielder-aristides-aquino/
Aquino is fun to watch bat but sometimes he has chased pitches low and out of zone.
Great to see, there is potential for the game changer type hitter with Aquino.
For those who don’t remember (or were not yet born), go to sicovers.com and look up the May 25, 1987 cover with Eric Davis in mid-swing at the plate.
Not long after that issue came out, a Letter to the Editor arrived from a Little League coach, thanking them for publishing this photo, because it captured just what he had been trying to teach his players: Davis had looked the ball all the way into the barrel.
It’s not just Aquino’s mammoth home runs and his #44 Reds jersey that remind me of Davis. Watch all of those dingers again…you’ll see The Punisher look that ball…all the way into the barrel.
VERY nice, indeed.
Man that kid is fun to watch. And not to nitpick, but I think it came in 21MPH slower than it went out. He trucked it.
Who’s counting? (I am, and thank you for the correction)
Jim isn’t the only one that believed that AA was showing good plate discipline. I wear glasses though.
Doug, I’m sorry but I can’t agree with your assessment that Barry Bonds was “probably the greatest hitter that ever lived”. His truly ridiculous stats in San Fran were clearly the result of performance enhancing drugs. Like wise for another you cited, Sammy Sosa. Barry Bonds doesn’t have my vote for greatest anything, unless the poll is who was the best cheater. Not a criticism of you, just my opinion.
Jim, I’m not disputing that he had some great production in Pittsburgh and in his earlier years in SF. You want to include him in the conversation, go right ahead. In general, it’s hard to compare hitters from different generations. That being said, I’ll take Ted Williams stats (for instance) over Barry Bonds any day of the week. Better career BA, OBP, SLG%, etc., even with Bond’s advantage of the steroid use. Williams has a higher OPS+, which as you know is adjusted for the ballparks. TW lost three prime years to his service in WW II. And they both played into their 40’s.
And most importantly, I know that Joey V would agree with me đŸ˜‰