Yermín Mercedes Broke an Unwritten Rule and Crushed an Awesome Homer

In Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: Yermín Mercedes takes Willians Astudillo deep, Kevin Pillar brushes off getting plunked in the face and more.

He obliterated that pitch

All of baseball’s unwritten rules are stupid, but there’s something especially irritating about the ones that tell you not to try your hardest when the game is out of reach. In a sport where (via the salary arbitration system) players are paid based on their statistics, it’s wrong to ask them to take their foot off the gas when the outcome is no longer in doubt.

One such rule dictates that you shouldn’t swing at a 3–0 pitch when your team is up big late in the game. And you definitely shouldn’t swing on 3–0 when a position player is pitching.

But that’s exactly what White Sox rookie Yermín Mercedes did on Monday against the Twins.

With Chicago up 15–4 in the ninth, Minnesota sent utilityman Willians Astudillo in to pitch. Just as he did in his first pitching appearance of the season, Astudillo floated pitches toward the plate at speeds that should be physically impossible. Statcast was able to pick up only five of Astudillo’s 12 pitches, but his slowest recorded pitch of the night, which induced a Nick Madrigal groundout for the final out of the inning, was a preposterous 45.8 mph. Timing a pitch that slow can be impossible, but not for Mercedes.

Astudillo fell behind 3–0 on Mercedes and then lofted a towering eephus pitch, which was clocked at 47.1 mph. The unwritten rules dictate that Mercedes should have let it go by, but the meatball was too appetizing. He sat back and walloped it for a monster home run.

The faster a pitch comes in, the easier it is to send it back out with some serious velocity. But despite coming in at just 47.1 mph, Mercedes crushed the pitch with an impressive 109.3 mph exit velocity. The ball ended up traveling 429 feet. That takes ridiculous strength.

Twins color commentator Roy Smalley didn’t appreciate it, though.

“I don’t like it now, at 15-4,” Smalley said. “You’re going to get the same pitch after this. I don’t like it.”

Twins veteran Nelson Cruz wasn’t upset with Mercedes giving himself the green light there, but he also wasn’t terribly impressed.

“It was another homer, no?” Cruz told reporters. “Just a homer, I guess. You know.”

No, it wasn’t just another homer. Since 2008 (as far back as MLB’s pitch velocity data goes), no one has hit a dinger on a pitch thrown slower than the one Mercedes crushed. There has been a total of five homers on pitches thrown 55 mph or slower. Only Mercedes and DJ LeMahieu (last September, on a 48.7-mph pitch from Blue Jays infielder Santiago Espinal) have homered on pitches below 50 mph. Isn’t doing something cool like that way more important than respecting some imaginary rule?

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Around the sports world

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It’s incredible that he was able to walk off 

Thanks to everyone that has reached out! Scary moment but I’m doing fine! #RBI #gamewinner 👍🏽👍🏽

— Kevin Pillar (@KPILLAR4) May 18, 2021

What a vicious hack

Everybody from that World Series team is a god in Chicago

Freddie Freeman is having fun this season

History for Gerrit Cole, but the ball won’t be going to Cooperstown

Monday was a big day for women in sports

ESPN signs Leah Hextall in historic NHL play-by-play hire https://t.co/lm4KAPbDxu pic.twitter.com/0btnsGLqJO

— New York Post (@nypost) May 17, 2021

The @Broncos have named Kelly Kleine Exec Dir of Football Operations & Special Advisor to GM George Paton, making her the highest-ranking woman in a team's scouting department in #NFL history.https://t.co/MyOJeIlKkF

— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) May 17, 2021

Hayley Wickenheiser already held the highest hockey ops role ever for a woman in the NHL

Today, the Maple Leafs promoted her again— and hired Danielle Goyette as director of player development

Here’s a story from 2019 on Toronto’s groundbreaking approach https://t.co/PvdZIZQXrA

— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) May 17, 2021

Money actually can buy everything

In the CL1(2nd-division) match today between Sichuan Jiuniu and Zibo Cuju, He Shihua, the principle sharedholder of Zibo Cuju, was introduced into the match just ahead of the injury time. The 35-year-old enterpreneur/footballer wears No. 10 shirt. The match ended 0:0. pic.twitter.com/d0XfNFUFIZ

— Titan Sports (@titan_plus) May 4, 2021

Chinese businessman bought Zibo Cuju, second tier Chinese side, and told the coach to play his 126kg son.

(via @TUDNUSA) pic.twitter.com/ylJehD0BAf

— Photos of Football (@photosofootball) May 17, 2021

The shorts are straight out of 2004

Adam Sandler hooping in Long Island rocking a polo shirt is why he's the 🐐

(via @APOOCH)pic.twitter.com/AIj4Ll59gz

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) May 17, 2021

Who dumped grease on the track?

OH MY. This just happened at the FIA Karting European Championship. 😱 pic.twitter.com/6rfhH24TPX

— Feeder Series (@feeder_series) May 15, 2021

Not sports

New research suggests mammals are capable of breathing through their rectums. ... A woman famous for showing up to protests in an inflatable Pikachu costume has been elected to help draft Chile’s new constitution. ... Russia’s minister of defense floated the idea of cloning 3,000-year-old soldiers discovered in permafrost. 

Don’t text and ride

lmao pic.twitter.com/fLn3gIQBvc

— David Mack (@davidmackau) May 17, 2021

A good song

I heard this song twice randomly while I was away for the weekend and forgot it kinda slaps. 

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