A common baseball adage is throw [the barrel of] your bat at the ball. Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier took that to heart on Sunday while facing the soft-tossing, 49-year-old lefty Jamie Moyer.
With the bases empty and one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Frazier waited back on a 72 mph changeup and then turned on it for his fifth home run of the season and the fourth off Moyer on the day. The difference from this home run and the other three Reds’ homers was that, as the ball landed about five rows deep, the bat was sitting on the grass of the infield about 10 feet to Moyer’s right.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before:
Of course, Frazier probably didn’t mean to let go of his bat. At first, it kind of looked like a broken bat and that’s how announcer Thom Brennaman called it. But upon further review, it’s clear that the bat slips from Frazier’s grip. Need some more pine tar on that bad boy… or just keep throwing your bat at the ball and hope the ball goes further than the bat.
