What’s in the air Tuesday night at Comerica Park? The Tigers’ home yard has been a launching pad, hosting two massive bazooka-shot home runs to deep center field.
OK, maybe it’s bad pitching in the air, with two of the more disappointing starting rotations in MLB between the Tigers and Mariners. Seattle’s Taijuan Walker came into Tuesday’s game having served up 16 homers. But none of them were likely as titanic as the rocket J.D. Martinez launched off him in the third inning.
Baseballs don’t typically hit that camera well in center field at Comerica Park. That is a long, long way away from home plate, seemingly safe from the onslaught of nearly any deep fly ball. Martinez laughed at such limited thinking while hitting his 27th homer of the season.
Yet that wasn’t the only home run blasted to Detroit’s vast center field during the third inning on Tuesday. In the top of the frame, Nelson Cruz sent a Shane Greene pitch into the shrubbery above and beyond the 420 ft. marker in dead center.
While not as rare as hitting the camera well, the greenery behind the fence typically doesn’t get battered by baseballs. Not when Cruz is around to flex his slugging muscles. That was No. 22 on the season for last year’s MLB home run champ.
By the way, Walker allowed another home run in this ballgame, teeing up a shot by Yoenis Cespedes in the fifth inning. And you thought Home Run Derby was last Monday in Cincinnati.
UPDATE: Via the Oakland Press‘ Matthew Mowery, Martinez’s home run tied for the longest in Comerica Park history at 466 feet. Interesting, the outfielder also holds the record for longest home run by a visiting player, a 464-foot shot he hit while with the Astros.
