The Yankees aren't just hitting home runs, they're pulverizing the baseball.
The Bombers led all of MLB with 98 long balls entering Tuesday's action, and not surprisingly Giancarlo Stanton accounted for more than his fair share of those round-trippers.
But as usual, not only is Stanton racking up the taters, he's hitting the ball harder than anyone else.
On Friday night the beefy slugger accounted for the hardest-hit home run of the season to date, a ferocious line drive off Cubs right-hander Matt Swarmer that ricocheted off the facade of the second deck at Yankee Stadium.
At just a shade under 120 mph, Stanton's blast, his 13th on the season, became the fourth-hardest hit home run of the Statcast era.
Of course Stanton was merely chasing his own records, since he already had the top two maximum exit velocities ever recorded, with teammate Aaron Judge claiming the third spot.
Meanwhile, Stanton was also leading the league in average exit velocity at 97.1 mph entering Tuesday's action. Next on the list was Judge, at 96.3 mph.
In fact, hitting the ball hard is Stanton's calling card. By at least one count he had a whopping 16 batted balls over 115 mph this season, while no other player had more than three.
Yet when it comes to home run distance, Stanton somewhat surprisingly wasn't actually among the leaders, neither by maximum nor average. And with a sub-average launch angle of 10 degrees, the 32-year-old seems to be more of a line drive hitter than a classic fly-ball slugger.
In any event Stanton continues to do what he's always done, which is hit the cover off the ball and hit a lot of home runs in the process. He's on pace to finish in the top 1 or 2 percent in average exit velocity for the fifth time in the past eight seasons.
And while his slash line was excellent through Monday at .276/.348/.529, Statcast thinks Stanton has been unlucky, with an MVP-caliber expected line of .307/.436/.643.
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